


Fangan Ronpa: The Breaths of Life

by FluxYggdrasil



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types
Genre: Character Death, Dangan Ronpa OC, Fangan Ronpa, Murder Mystery, Original Character Death(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-20
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2018-08-31 19:11:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 25
Words: 101,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8590261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FluxYggdrasil/pseuds/FluxYggdrasil
Summary: Hopes Peak Academy is known as the pinnacle of honor and valor in Japan, but when Kimiko Waruki, part of the Class of 2020 at Hopes Peak Academy, finds herself waking up in a strange test tube in a blinding white facility alongside 15 of her classmates, she soon finds that Honor and Valor won't help her when she is thrust into a deadly game of Kill or Be Killed. Will Waruki survive the Trials and Tribulations of the facility, or will she succumb to the Death and Despair of these corrupted corridors?Currently in: Chapter 5: Leave the World Blind (Daily Life)(Join the official discord here’s for updates and discussion! https://discord.gg/egv3sNU)





	1. Prologue: Memento Gory (Part One)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Fangan Ronpa: Forest Nightmare](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1905825) by [Oclarina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oclarina/pseuds/Oclarina). 



> Here it is! The first part of the prologue for my Fangan! I hope you like it, since I spent many hours procrastinating to get this done. I don't have a defined update schedule, but im determined not to abandon it! Please leave some thoughts and constructive criticism in the comments! Inspired by Oclarina's Believe it or Not Series.

HPA

H-P-A  
  
The letters bounced off my tongue, I kept repeating them in my head as I made an attempt to regain my consciousness. HPA… Hope's Peak Academy. Despite it saying that it was a school for the best in the universe, it was really only for extremely gifted teenagers in Japan, kind of false advertising if you asked me. Despite this, I know that i'm an SHSL. Super High School Level. But… all I can remember is being asleep, I can’t remember how it happened, but I was unconscious. I didn’t think I had amnesia… but I found it necessary to go over the basics, just in case. I _was_ feeling a little foggy… My name is...

Kimiko… Waruki? I was certain that was my name, right? Yes… I was Waruki.

My name is Kimiko Waruki, and I am an SHSL, as is everyone at that school. The SHSL’s are the students that the school accepts. You have to be the very best in your field, as well as being from Japan. As you could imagine, it doesn’t have that many for a high school. Every class only has around 15 or 16 students. In a year, there’s usually only like 40-50 students in the entire building, despite the building for it being so massive. Why would someone like me be at some place like this? Well… I can remember my name… but my talent… I… Don’t know.

 

My mind started to wander… The thing that I remember the most, I was replaying it over and over again in my head, that conversation I had with… I think it must have been my mother...

“Hey, it's a good opportunity you know”

“What?”

“They’re offering a full scholarship for you, and all you have to do is say yes”

“... a full scholarship? Like, Full?”

“Yes, they want you to come in and interview you, amongst other things, and if you pass you get a full scholarship.”

  
I looked down at the letter, the envelope stamped with the wax crest of the School. The memories were cut and faded from the excitement of the future, but I was holding a letter. It wasn’t an acceptance letter… but a proposition letter. Hope's Peak wanted to come in and interview me, as well... as see… see… I still don’t know. I really don’t know what they wanted to see me for. I feel like I should know, I feel like I should remember, I know that they weren’t being vague, I know I read it, so why couldn’t remember?

 

“But… You read this too right… that's… pretty heavy. I don't’ know why I would be the most qualified.”

“Oh calm down! It's not like they are going to stick you in a machine and drain your personality. I'm sure that it will take all of 5 seconds, and with those 5, you are gold.”

“That doesn’t make it any better!”

“It's a free scholarship, and you would be set for life! You could get a job anywhere if you graduate from here!”

“But why me? What makes me so special that they are asking me?”

“Because…

 

Because…

 

 

Be…

 

 

 

 

Cause…

 

 

 

 

...

 

 

 

 

...what… happened to me?

 

The liquid surrounded me, I felt a weightlessness to my movements. I was trapped, the glass in front of me distorting my vision of the room in front of me, I was suspended in the liquid, but I didn’t feel like I was dying. It was a surreal experience, as if I was back in the womb of my mother all those years ago. It was almost like I was breathing the liquid, but humans can’t breathe liquid, can they? Apparently they can now, how long have I been asleep? I could feel slight heat from light shine in from the top, the only thing giving me solace from the chill of my liquid suspension. I reached up, and my hand made contact with the cool air of the room. Grabbing the rim of my containment, I pulled myself out, and landed onto the tiled floor.

I didn’t feel wet, I know I was just in the tube but I was dry as a bone. Strange...Looking around the room, I could finally see without the liquid and glass distorting it. It was greenish tan, and still bubbling. The tube was hooked up to a bunch of fancy machines I would have no hope of remembering. The room was painfully white, almost to the point of blinding. Surrounding me were 16 tubes, all filled with the same liquid. I felt a breeze go through me. I looked at myself, and noticed I wasn’t exactly wearing anything. Embarrassing!

I noticed by the wall there was a locker with… my clothes. The clothes I came to the school in, it was all in there. The abnormality of my situation had somehow caused me to not think about it at all. It was so abnormal that my brain was just accepting it, it accepted the amnesia, it accepted me waking up naked in some over-glorified test tube, it was only when I actually took a step back and looked at the situation as a whole that I actually began to scream.

Thankfully, I had all my clothes back on when the first person who heard my screaming came bursting through the door.

“Oi! She’s finally awake!” The boy had raggedy hair, and a red and yellow dress shirt. He was adorned with a white apron with a rose red heart on it. His demeanor seemed very casual, as if he was raised on a farm. He took a single step closer to me after eyeing me up.  
  
“Well gosh! Y’must be pretty s’prised to be awake like this! Well, Don't w’rry, we all’re pretty confused too!” The boy flashed a smile towards me. Pearly whites, dental hygiene must have smiled highly upon him.  
  
“All.. of us…?” I hesitantly asked.  
  
“Y’know, th’class of 2020? Hope's Peak?” He looks perplexed at me, as it I was some kind of stranger, or maybe like I had amnesia? Well, I mean I did, but, it was still rude to assume!  
  
“Oh! So you are an SHSL too?” I was starting to theorise in my brain as I talked. He had mentioned the academy, so perhaps he was too?  
  
“That’ll be correct darling! Th’names Katsu Shishido, I'm the SHSL Caterer.

 

That confirmed my suspicions, he was in fact an SHSL, which meant that I was too. I knew for sure now that it wasn’t just some weird forced hallucination.

“A Caterer?”

“Thas Right! Ah cook f’lots n’lots of people!” Shishido explained to me. He began to walk, beckoning me to follow him. “Come on, I’ll show you around!”

Honestly, it made sense for him to be some kind of cook, if the apron was of any indication. He had an almost homely kind of tone to their voice, even if his accent made him a little more hard to understand.

“So… Shishido-kun… you mentioned others?” I was curious. Surely there were more students around, it would be kind of eerie for just two people to wake up in some facility.

Shishido kept walking as I followed past. The corridors in this facility shared the same characteristics as the lab before. White, almost sterile walls. The floor was a metallic grey. It didn’t quite remind me of a hospital though, more like… some kind of postmodern architecture. It was quite unnerving. All I could hear during the lulls of the conversation were very distant murmurs and the clicks of our shoes stepping on the linoleum floor.

Shishido talked as he faced forward. “Yes, actually. There’s… 15- no, counting y’sudden arrival now there’s 16 of us in here. An’I don’t see anymore folks in those fancy pods, so…”  
  
My eyes shot open with a sudden realization, blushing slightly. “Wait you saw… all of us in the Pods.?”

“Th’ths right! In fact, I reckon I was th’ first one to wake up!”  
  
“So…Oh god! Does that mean you saw me witho-”

Shishido cut me off, speaking much louder than he normally did. “Speakin o’ Convesational Segue’s! We’re here!”  
  
Shishido was flustered and his face was as red as his shirt as he stopped in front of a door. Above the door was the word “Kitchen.” I could see a bigger door down the hall with the words “Cafeteria” Above them. It makes sense, an SHSL Caterer would be drawn to the kitchen, right? Shishido practically rushed in (probably to avoid my sudden question). Tentatively, I followed him in to try and give chase. Inside was Shishido and two other figures. One of them was a tall man with a white hat, he had a pink shirt and red bowtie. His hair was ginger orange, neatly parted and tied into a Ponytail. He was leaning on the counter, apparently talking to another person, who was keeled over, under the sink.

 

“Look, he’s back already, can’t you fix that thing any faster?” He was looking down at the other boy, not really making any attempt to help.

“Please, Good handiwork takes time.” The voice from the other one was more softer than the other’s, and the ends and starts of his words blended together more.  
  
“Well considering we’re trapped, Time i- heeeeeyyy… Shishido’s got a Girlfriend!” He stopped focusing on the other and focused on me, pointing towards me, shooting up a wry smile. He seemed a little too excited to tease Shishido.  
  
“AH DO NOT!” Shishido shouted back at the Ginger, still blushing.  
  
“Ah? Someone new come along?” The same slurred together words became a little more excited than when they were talking with the boy with the ponytail.

He crawled his way out and stood up. He was a little plump, but his Yellow shirt and blue overalls reminded me of some annoying franchise character, the similarities only ending with his fiery warm hair. He seemed very calm, almost nervous to meet me? He stood beside the ginger, and began to speak.  
  
“Aah, Hello miss! My name is Ryota Matsushita, and this uuh, _fine_ gentleman here is Kichirou Amai! I'm sure he’s just as pleased to meet you as I am!” He closed his eyes and put his arms behind his back.

Amai piped up once again. “Yeah, Its always good to have an extra hand around here! Matsushita’s a Plumber, and while I dabble in the Ice Cream business, ill have you know that while it might not sound like it, it takes a lot of skill and effort!”

 

He was trying his best to sound really convincing, but it just sounded like he was trying way too hard. I decided  that it was my turn to speak up, after the three of them started taking the conversation somewhere without me.

“So… what are you three doing? It seems like you are pretty busy."

“Ah! Amai-kun was just helpin’ me cook a meal for everyone, but the sink seems to be broke. Matsushita-kun offered t’ fix it up fer us!” Shishido looked towards the sink. It appeared to have a pipe missing from the bottom. There were all kinds of parts and tools under there as well. Most likely from Matsushita working on it under there.

Matsushita scrunched his eyes and gave a grin, rocking back and forth on his feet. “That's right! Once I fix these pipes, It’ll be ready to go for whatever soups or pasta’s you need!” He appeared to be proud of his work.

Amai pushed Shishido aside, seemingly sizing me up. “Say, you still haven’t introduced yourself yet, who are you.?” 

"I uuh" The suddenness of the question made me pause, but I managed to regain my composure. “My name is Kimiko Waruki, I… forget what talent I have… but I know I have one!”

Shishido walked past me and joined the other two, shooting a death glare at Amai. He was looking down below the sink to see Matsushita’s progress. He turned his head back towards me. “Hey Waruki-san, can you go get some vegetables from the Garden for us? This kitchen seems more stocked w’tools, rather than ingredients, y’don't mind, right?”

It appeared to me that Shishido was trying to break the tension in the air. “Are you sure?” I responded?

“I'm sure! Can’t feed anyone without lotsa good n healthy greens, right?” Shishido ushered me out of the room. “Thank ya in advance!” the door shut behind me, leaving me alone in the hallways of the building. Tentatively, I started down the halls, looking at the doors as I walked. I didn’t have any map, so I would have to do my best to keep a good sense of direction.

 

I read the signs above the door, written in a curvy but still modern print. “Cafeteria”, “Laboratory”, “Upper Deck”, “Dorms”, “Lounge”, It all seemed like basic, generalized stuff for a school, but my heart knew that this was no Academy. There were no classrooms, there was no faculty.

I began to think about why I couldn’t remember. I remembered, before waking up, reading the letter, then I gave it back to my mother… then I believe I fell asleep. Its hard for me to remember what happened before that, it was a blur. Id say its akin to a dream, you know it happened, but you can never remember the exact moment you transitioned from being conscious to dreaming. It was something similar to that, I can’t pinpoint when I woke up in the test tube, but I know I did, and it felt real.

Eventually, I got to a pair of frosted glass doors. Above them read the word “Garden.” I could see past the frosted glass a tint of green and browns, much like a nature exhibit would have. I slid open the doors to find 4 people, huddled around… something.

 

A boy with a blue hoodie, with his hair slicked up was the first one to speak, not noticing that I had entered the room. “What should we do with it?” he explained. It seemed to have a more energetic, perked up voice. Another, tall dark skinned woman crossed her arms and spoke sternly and matter-of-factly. “Well you don't just stand there, that's for sure! Someone get some ice!” The next one up to speak was more higher pitched than the previous, but still youthful and concerned. “Its not that bad, is it? I mean its just a bug bite…” The last one to speak had a soft, yet agitated voice. Like a boy who is too scared to speak up speaking up for the first time. “Well… it sure hurts like hell.” He did his best to sound annoyed, but it just didn’t come out.

It was about this time that he must have saw me, and spoke up. “Hey, you, do you mind coming over here and looking at this…?” The rest suddenly turned and looked at me, to my shock. The sudden burst of eye contact made me stagger for a moment, but I managed to come closer to the boy with the glasses. “My name is Naoki Ueno, i'm the SHSL Survivalist, thank you for joining us.”

 

I was let into the circle of people crowded around Ueno, who had his ankle exposed and a large red mark. He was wearing a white and red t-shirt, and some kind of cloak or fur skin around his shoulders. The next one to speak up, coming from behind me was the darker-skinned woman. They spoke with a carrying voice, as they looked down straight towards me.

“Name”

I was a bit taken aback by the forcefulness of her, but found myself compelled to oblige as if I was scared of her. “Waruki! Uuh… Kimiko Waruki! SHSL- Well… I can’t remember my SHSL Talent but its nice to meet you… uuh…”

I could feel their stare pierce into my soul as I mentioned that I didn’t remember my talent. Thankfully she shut her eyes and sighed. The girl responded with her own introduction.“Kei Homura, SHSL Park Ranger. Don’t forget it!”

I scratched my head a bit. “A Park Ranger? So… you know what happened to him?”

The girl with the higher pitched voice spoke up, nearly cutting the end of my sentence off. “They’re Fire Ants! I know all about fire ants, you have to be careful!” Homura stepped in front of her and put a hand on her shoulder. This girl had a nice, sky blue scarf and a green hoodie, with large pink pom-poms attached to the drawstrings. Her hair was blonde with a dyed- green lock of hair drooping down. I couldn’t help but think that her appearance looked like a character from a novel I used to read back in my old school about a forest and a dome. Shaking this thought, I asked their name and talent.

“Ooh ooh!” The girl responded. “I'm Eiko Michizoe! SHSL Hiker! Its really so goody good to meet you, but I wish it was under different circumstances!”

Just as Michizoe finished introducing herself, Ueno let out another sigh of pain. The other boy who was there, a redhead with his hair put up, wearing a blue sweater, rushed to his side. “Alright, easy there big guy, its gonna be alright” Everyone turned towards this boy, who was speaking in a lighthearted and comforting tone towards Ueno. He began to speak up once again. “Aha… whoops. Looks like i'm the only one who hasn’t introduced themselves. Ill make it easy for you. Hamadate Daishin, Cartographer, pleasure’s all mine.

Daishin continued to speak. “As we were saying, we’re trying to handle this bite here. The little guys got him pretty good.” Ueno interjected, as much as he could with his soft spoken voice. “I could really use something other than… your guys’ stares.”

Michizoe tugged on my arm, pleading at me. “Hey hey! Waruki-san! You should go down to the infirmary to get us some supplies!” I tried to explain that I was only here to get some vegetables, but Homura stepped closer towards me, folding her arms. “We’re all here together, and we all have a duty to help eachother. I'm sure you can get your vegetables after you help Ueno-kun, thank you in advance!”

The last part of that sentence seemed almost cutting, like a knife, but I went out the doors regardless. Daishin called out from behind me that he would see me soon as I shut the door to the garden behind me.

 

I can tell that this is going to be a really, _really_ long day


	2. Prologue: Memento Gory (Part Two)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want all my readers to know I don't have an update schedule. My actual schedule is fucked but Ill do my best to get the chapters our in a timely manner.

So far, it's been a long day for me. As it turns out, losing my memories, waking up in a test tube full of weird fluids, meeting other talented people such as myself, being sent on an over glorified wild goose chase, AND not even remembering what I got accepted into this school for…

 ...it doesn’t really make me a very happy and stress free person. No matter though, just as I have to press onto the future, I walked down the hall to find something to help Ueno’s injury, since I did feel bad that he seemed to be in pain. 

 As I was walking to the infirmary, I was trying to remember more and more, but nothing was coming to my head. I don’t even know when I feel asleep, or what my most recent memory was. It was as if someone had cut the timeline of my memories and pasted them on a board, without linear thoughts. I could make out the difference between ages, but recent has been...

 It gave me a headache to think about. I figured I could get some aspirin for my slight headache while I was there. It was worth it to get something for my troubles. When I found the infirmary, which was a little ways away from the cafeteria, I could hear more voices coming from inside. Oh lordy here we go again. I pushed open the doors, and there were 4 more people scouring the place. They didn’t seem to notice me entering though, so I just tried to find some… well… I wasn’t really sure what you could use to treat ant bites, but some lotion and gauze and a wet cloth was my best guess. As I was going to go into a cabinet, I accidentally knocked something down, causing them all to turn towards me.

 “Oh hey! Someone new!” A rather muscular man said towards me.

Another one stepped out from behind him. “Why are you sneaking like that, it makes you awfully suspicious.” This one had goggles on, with short pinkish-purple hair, They hugged the man’s arm and squished her rather well endowed chest into him as he pulls his arm away. “No. You stop that.”

The pink haired lady looked dejected as another, much less buff man came out. “So, Who are you?” He had spikey, firey hair, as well as a white and green polo shirt. He stepped towards me a little too close to comfort. I stepped back once or twice. Before I could answer though, he closed his eyes with a smirk, and placed his hand around his neck, introducing himself. “My name is Muto Heisuke, Ill have you know i'm the SHSL Pole Vaulter.”

 

They stepped back as the goggled lady. Looked at me. “Hey, you’re one of the ones from the pods, were you?” I nodded my head alongside her. I wasn’t quite afraid of conflict per-se, but too many people talking at once always tended to bug me. I felt an itching at the back of my head, like I was trying to remember something, like all of the talking was making me remember something, but nothing came.

I grasped my head as it started to ache, when the muscled man came to my side. It felt weird, having him grabbing me, but he also quickly ushered the other girl over. He began to speak. “Easy there, we’re here to help. Amaterasu here is a medic.” He shook his head in the goggled girl’s direction as she replied.

“That's right. My name is Takai Amaterasu, i'm a Paramedic at Hope's Peak, you’re in good hands.”

  

I looked over. It made sense, they had a yellow shirt under what looked like a light blueish-greenish sweater. They brought a bottle over to me. “Here, we managed to find some blood thinners in here, amongst other things. It looks like you might be having a headache.” I took the plastic bottle and opened it up. I feel like i’ve taken these before. I put one in my mouth, and Heisuke handed me a small glass of water to wash it down with. I decided that I should speak up, and turned towards the muscular man, asking his name.

He rubbed the back of his neck. “Oh gee… uuh… Its… Mikio… Otaka!” The boy was stumbling over his words. He didn’t seem like the kind of person to be so eloquent, but it was clear that he didn’t have too much practice with introductions. “Tree Climber” He continued. “I am the SHSL Tree Climber”

  

The man was very muscular, seeming to wear only a green tanktop. Aside form this, they had some sort of harness around his chest. Was this climbing gear? He seemed aloof, his hair being quite messy. He moved out of my way, to a corner of the room. However, he appeared to trip over something as a high pitched squeal came out from where he tripped. I remembered, there were 4 people in the room when I came in, weren’t there? A Pale blonde girl sat up, rubbing her head. She had a pinkish toque on, and what looked like a Ski jacket. She quickly ducked back behind the medical bed. I stepped forward, calling out lightly for her. I looked over the bed to see her lying on the floor, reading a book on medical procedures. She looked up at me, like a rabbit would look up at a potential attacker.

“H-hey… do… you m-mind…?” They seemed to curl up in a ball, not wanting to be bothered. I took a step back away from her, before Amaterasu sat on the bed, leaning over and looking.

“This is Yuki Yukimura, they are a… Skier I believe, and… they don’t really like to be bothered much.”

  

“Oh…” I responded. “Hello… I won’t hurt you, really! I don’t bite!” It always made me feel bad when other people felt scared of me, but I must have put too much pep into my greeting, as Yukimura let out a squeak.

Otaka turned to me. “Hey, we’ll talk to you later, ok? Uuh… we… we’ll meet up another time once Yukimura is done… ok? Is that ok?” Unconfidently, he and Heisuke began to usher me out as I remembered what I came for in the first place.

 Damnit… Ueno needed something to treat his ant bite and I had completely got caught up in introductions! No matter, I figured that if I couldn’t get stuff, I could look up what to do. Surely there were books just like Yukimura’s in the library.

 I walked down the halls, trying to get my bearings on this environment I was in. It was white, like a laboratory, but with all of the sterile pieces, and lights and the way that everything was set up, it reminded me more of a hospital. Despite this, aside from the infirmary there was no medical supplies. I imagined this is what architects and builders felt about the hospitals before they brought all the furniture and machinery back in.

 When I reached the doors with a sign marking “LIBRARY” above them, there was another student outside the library who was writing in some kind of journal. She had a brown fedora, and had 2 bluish green pigtails. She seemed to notice my presence not long after I noticed hers, and pressed her notebook and pencil to her chest. “Oh, hey!” She appeared to be speaking in a casual manner, aside from a hint of uneasiness. They seemed relatively calm though, so I decided to introduce myself.

“My name is Kimiko Waruki” which she had apparently immediately scribbled down into her journal. I asked her what was in the journal, and she began to explain.

“I want to write everything down about this situation, so that-” but before she could finish, the doors to the library, which I had just now realized were open, gave way to a small girl who had jumped out of the doorway and latched onto the other’s shoulders from behind.

“Boo! Gotha Kujou-chan!” The blue haired girl, who must have been called Kujou, jumped, throwing her book across the hall. I walked over and grabbed the journal, noticing the name on the front. “Akemi Kujou.” I looked into the library, the small girl from before was being scolded by someone else, with another man standing close by. I stuck my hand out, and asked her if it was her name.  
  
“Yes, Akemi Kujou is my name, and… i'm the SHSL Editor. Thank you for asking.”

  

I stuck my hand out, and she grabbed it, using me as an anchor to lift herself up. I asked her who the other kid was. “Oh… her…” She began to explain. “That's-” She was once again cut off by the same small child, who jumped in between us, swinging her arms up above her head.

“Aika Kikuchiiiii!!! SHSL Musical Actress! That's me, so make sure you don’t forget, or you might not like what happens!”

  

“Hmph! You should come see what we’re doing!” She had quickly said, in a high pitched youthful manor. If it wasn’t for the fact that we were all supposedly in the same class, I would have thought she would be in her early middle school years. I turned towards Kujou, who I still hadn’t had a good conversation with. They had urged me to go with Kikuchi anyways. Reluctantly, I followed, with Kikuchi leading me by the arm.  
  
Kikuchi was going fast, much faster than I was at least. She wasn’t watching where she was going though, and bumped into a rather well built man, though he wasn’t quite muscular. He turned around as Kikuchi yelped.

“Ah! Kikuchi! You really need to watch where you’re going girl!” I picked her up, asking if she was ok, before she swatted my hand away, screeching as to not touch her. “Heyy! That's definitely a new voice! You mind introducing yourself kid?”

I was getting really tired of introductions at this point, but I politely obliged. Kimiko Waruki, SHSL Who the heck knows, the usual. “Oh! Well, that's pretty sad my dude! I'm a Sculptor myself! Kazuhiko Teruachi, at your service man!”

 

“Maybe you’re talent has to do with art too? Haha… yeah… that would be pretty cool.”

I thought about it for a bit. “Yeah, maybe!” I used to be pretty artistic when I was smaller. Perhaps that what it was? “What do you see in me that makes you say that?”

Another voice came across from behind me. They sounded stern, but not quite as stern as Homura. More like an exhausted tone. “He’s blind.” I turned around with a start, looking at the girl. I recognized her as the girl who scolded Kikuchi earlier. I felt instant regret at what I was saying after learning that Teruachi was blind.

“Oh… oh god i'm so sorry!” The girl just sorta, tentatively patted my shoulder. “Its ok. Yori Kazehaya, Taxi Driver.”

  

“Is that all?” Kazehaya didn’t seem much for conversation, really. A lot of what she was saying were in sentences of 2 to 5 words. I wasn’t ready for a conversation (or lack thereof), so I just sorta walked past to the shelves, trying to find the book I was looking for. Before I could find just what I was looking for however, I heard a loud buzzing, as if a speaker was cracking to life. An intercom on the ceiling began to speak.

 “Aah, Aah, Good morning! Wakey wakey eggs and Bakey! I see that all of you are out and about! So, let's make our way back to the Laboratory, shall we?”

 Well, it looked like Shishido wasn’t going to get his vegetables now.

 Me, along with the 15 I had previously met, had all relocated to the pod room, where we all first woke up. There was a large commotion, too much for me to keep track of. Most of it was questions as to why all of us were called here.

“Well I’ve never met any of you in my life” I could hear Amai say in the distance, while at the same time listening to the protests of Yukimura, who was trying to leave, despite Kazehaya and Homura not letting her. All of the commotion was suddenly cut short by a single voice. The voice was very choppy, and while there was rhythm to it, it was grating to listen to, like autotune without the tune.

 

“Hello! I see you’re all up with the pep in your steps. My name is The Overseer, and I am the director of this facility. Now, without further ado, let us begin!”

 

 

It was hard to describe what was in front of me. Out from behind the wall of large machines was a man- no, more like a robot. He was grossly dressed in all white, with only a burgundy tie to cut it. Where his head should be though...  it was just a monitor, a large TV monitor with 2 antennae sticking out, and a large eye on the screen.

“Well well! Good to see you all got here in one piece, so, I should explain some things! I bet you all are very confused! I mean look at you! Acting like you’ve never seen a robot in your life”

The walking automaton’s electronic eye moved as it eyed up each and every one of us. As it looked at me, I couldn’t help but feel its lifeless gaze pierce into my soul. I looked away instinctively towards my feet.

Firstly, as you might have deduced, there is no discernible exit from this facility, aside from a couple carefully placed locked doors. Of course, that's because you aren’t leaving! You are all to stay and live in this facility for the rest of your short lived lives!”

I heard a couple pained gasps, as well as some protesting shouts from the crowd, but that didn’t stop him from talking. He pulled out 16 little cell phone looking items.

“Oh don’t whine! I got you some welcoming gifts! I have taken the liberty of replacing your cell phones with my own brand! And these ones won’t cost you a thing! Here, take one!”

 I was handed one. The back simply had the word “eyePhone” written on it, with a picture of The Overseer’s eye above it. I turned it over, and pressed down on the button at bottom with my thumb.

“They are fingerprint scanner buttons! So only you can get into your own!” The Overseer called out to us, in a tone that made them sound like they were trying too hard to be hip. I looked at the “apps” that were given to us. There was a Calendar, a Notepad, a Pedometer, A Calculator, an Alarm clock, Maps, all the boring stuff. There was also 2 or 3 small games on it. Small stuff like Helicopter or Traffic Jam. Games I used to play when I was in middle school. At the bottom however, there was an app called “SeerFiles.” It didn’t allow me to click on it. I piped up, asking The Overseer what it was.

“Of course, my dear. I was getting right there! Before, I said that escape was impossible, but I have deceived you all! There is one way to leave. Allow me to explain. You were all brought here to play a game. The **Game of Mutual Killing**. If you all wish to see your families again, then this is how.”

The Monitor on The Overseer’s head changed to display text.

“Firstly, only those who kill one of your peers can leave! Yikes! But don’t worry, I don't want you immediately going at eachothers throats like some kind of bloodthirsty school council, so that's where the class trial rule comes in!

“Once someone has killed someone else, I will allow 3 hours to investigate the crime scene! Unleash your inner CSI. During the trial, you discuss who you think did it! Get it right, and they lose the game and get axed! But pin the wrong kid, and he or she escapes while I will get to kill each and every last one of you!”

I shook my head, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. A game of mutual killing? Others around me were just as equally gasping.

“Hey… th-that's not that nice of you… you... you know!” Otaka managed to sputter out, holding his fists in front of him as if he was ready to defend any attack.

“Yeah, what makes you think that we’re just gonna go along with what some creepy dude says!” exclaimed Kikuchi, holding onto Otaka’s side.

 The Overseer simply laughed. “Well, For one, you don’t seem to understand the power I hold.” The Overseer clapped their hands together, and a migraine swept over me and what appeared to be everyone else, bringing me to my knees. I was in pain, its was all so sudden but the pain washed over me. I don't know what he did but I wanted him to stop, I was in agony, holding my head. I was just about ready to beg for mercy when The Overseer began to speak again.

“Now do you all see?” They began to chuckle in their robotic voice. “I have laid my cards on the table, now it is time to see who will check, and who will fold! Or... Something like that! Im bad at these kinds of things. I will be back later.” He clapped one more time, and the pulsing migraine that was washed over my head left me. We all got up, and The Overseer was gone.

We all looked at each other. Would one of us kill?

None of us really did know each other, even though we were acting friendly earlier, for the most part.

I couldn’t do it, I didn’t want to stare, I didn’t want to try and gauge anyone’s intentions right now.

This was all... too much to handle.

I found myself bursting out of the rooms, running down the halls. I didn’t know where I was going, I didn't care where I was going. I just wanted to be home. Other people started to run out of the room as well, whether it be out of fear or concern, or just trying to keep their mind off of things. One of the doors that I managed to find was one labelled “Dorms.” I remember seeing it before, but only now did I come to the sickening realization that it was for us. I stepped through it, and found my own room as quickly as I could. At least my room was neat and well kept, like, probably a 3 and a half star hotel room. I flopped down onto my bed and closed my eyes, hoping that everything up until now was just some surreal dream, and that I would wake up back at the school.

 Little did I know that the surreal dream I was having soon would turn into a living nightmare.

 

 ** [PROLOGUE END] **  
**[SURVIVING STUDENTS: 16]**  
**[CONTINUE?]**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well there it is. All 16. I can't wait to have them all die. Is there someone you really want to see Waruki talk to in the future during her free time? Leave a comment below! Ill try my best to oblige on the most demanding requests, but it might take a couple chapters. Im sorry! Still, I hope you've enjoyed so far!


	3. Chapter 1: No Good Deed (Daily Life Pt. 1)

**CHAPTER 1, NO GOOD DEED: DAILY LIFE**

 

“Good Mourning boys and girls! It’s time to rise and shine to another bright and beautiful day!”

 

I awoke groggily. Believe it or not, I didn’t actually get that much sleep last night. Being suddenly thrown into a situation like this, a battle royale, I almost didn’t want to sleep. Every time I felt myself dozing off I saw an image of someone else breaking into my room and ending my life. Such a thought chilled me to the bone. I probably passed out around 4:00 in the morning, 3 hours before The Overseer made his 7:00 Announcement. I didn’t want to get up, I never wanted to get up again. I kept thinking to myself “If I never leave this room I won’t ever have to risk dying.” Unfortunately, the rapping on my door proved that staying in my room forever would be quite difficult. it was insistent, and kinda annoying, so after getting out of my bed I went and got up to the door, before opening it while hiding behind it. I didn’t want to have any surprise attacks against me. Unfortunately, all I saw was Kazehaya, Homura, and Matsushita enter my room, calling for me. I stepped out for my hiding spot and coughed, to signal their attention. Matsushita yelped and jumped while Homura swiftly turned around to greet me. I'm not entirely sure Kazehaya even heard me.

“Good Morning, Waruki” Homura said, politely. “We’ve all decided that we are going to be holding morning breakfast meetings to keep order in our new entrapment. Please, come with us.” She was quite forceful, even though her tone was more polite than demanding. Matsushita just stared at me as he dragged Kazehaya alongside him. Poor thing, I must have scared him so much he couldn’t even speak. Homura followed suit before giving me these instructions. “Please follow us to the cafeteria, would you Waruki?” I decided against protesting, despite being extremely Tired. Maybe some food and conversation would help me awaken.

The cafeteria had lots of smaller square tables, but it seems that others who were awake before me managed to slide a couple of them together, turning it into one extra long table. I saw that you could have maybe 6 per long side, and 2 for each of the ends, meaning all 16 of us could sit.

“Ah! Waruki! Glad to see you’ve woken up!” shouted Amai, from the back. “Why don’t you come take a seat with us?”

I went over and took a seat near one of the ends, next to Daishin and especially away from Amai. I noticed there were still others who hadn’t woken up, or were off somewhere else. I heard the door open from the other end of the hall, to reveal Shishido, with a cart holding a tray full of fruits as well as a jug of juice and a pot of coffee. He wheeled the tray over to the long table, bidding everyone a good morning.

“Aah, g’mornin e’rryone! Please, feel free t’ help y’self to breakfast!” everyone who had been feeling groggy alongside me, as well as the others who awoke with a peppier demeanor all audibly expressed their delight at the food, and took some. I opted to just taking a styrofoam cup of Coffee though. Some other late sleepers, Ueno, Yukimura, and Teruachi, came in after breakfast had been served. I could tell that everyone had still been on edge from the entrance of The Overseer last night. There was a thick silence as we all ate. I tried to speak up to try and break it.

“So uuh… What are we going to do?” It was the first thing I could think of, and really what could we do? We were told the only way to get out was to kill someone but… “I mean, we all were brought in here, there’s gotta be a way out right?

Homura was the first to speak up. “A very good idea! If we know our surroundings, then we can figure out a way to escape!’ She was really stepping up as the leader. I wasn’t expecting her to start speaking so suddenly though. Thankfully, my cup of coffee didn’t spill.

“Well ah don’t think we’d starve anytime soon” Started Shishido. “The kitchen appears to have lotsa cookin’ stuff.”

Daishin nodded his head as well. “Yeah, and there is lots of food in the garden. The fridge and pantry is also stocked, but I can see why you would want to get your veggies and fruits from somewhere more natural.”

Ueno spoke up next, timidly. “There’s ample supplies in the infirmary… both physical mending… as well as medication and pills…”

“Is that so? Hmm…” Homura started. “Alright, I hope nobody needs any medication, but if you do, could you please write me a note so that I can keep track of who needs what?”

Heisuke piped up after her demand, leaned back on his chair and feet on the table. “Oh, and who made you team captain? Wouldn’t knowing everyone’s weaknesses make it easier for you to murder someone?”

Homura seemed caught off guard by this, but quickly regained her composure. “You are free to not give me the info if possible, however, if you are hurt, we might not be able to help you adequately. Mutual trust is paramount to our survival.” Heisuke threw his head back sighing in defeat, but the force sent him backwards, onto his back.

Ignoring Heisuke, Kujou, the SHSL Editor, was the next to speak. “There was a rather large library, full of all different kinds of books, fiction and nonfiction.” She pulled out that notebook of hers again. I looked over Daishin’s shoulders to try and peep. Most of what was written in there though was just what others were saying. I had supposed that writing down all the info for later use was useful of her. “So… I suppose if escape is going to take a while, at least uh… we will have some form of entertainment?”

Kazehaya agreed with Kujou, with a simple “Yes, Entertainment.”

“Oh!” Piped up Teruachi after Kazehaya’s blunt statement. “Speaking of entertainment, Yukimura helped me check out the lounge. Its really cozy dudes! Its got like these really comfy sofa’s, and there was a table there too! I nearly tripped on it!”

Yukimura, who had been trying to lay low as to not be noticed, did raise herself up a bit to follow up on Teruachi’s comment on the lounge. “There w-was also a f-f-fake fireplace… and… a c-cabinet with some b-b-board games too… it l-looks like a g-g-good place to r-relax and f-find something to d-d-do…” as Yukimura finished her sentence, she sunk back down in her seat, silently picking at a grapefruit.

Finally, the last one to speak was none other than Homura Herself. “I investigated the Laboratory, where we all woke up. It seems that the pods are filled with some form of breathable liquid. I'm still not sure why, but the tubes seem like they could move. They all seemed to be hooked up to some kind of machine, but I couldn’t make any sense of it. Additionally, I found that we all have rules on our…” Homura sighed. “eyePhones... “

At Homura’s mention of the rules, I decided to take mine out. I should probably read up on the rules, as I didn’t want to think of what would be done to me if I didn’t comply with them. I pressed my thumb up to the button, and on it popped. I made my way to the rules, which was under the announcements.

RULES OF THE MUTUAL KILLING! 

1) ALL PARTICIPANTS ARE TO LIVE WITHIN THE QUARTERS OF FACILITY UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE   
2) NO PARTICIPANT MAY BREAK ANY MONITORS, CAMERA’S, OR LOCKED DOORS.   
3) NIGHT HOURS ARE FROM 11PM TO 7AM. HOW YOU SPEND THIS TIME IS UP TO YOU, BUT ALL SHOWERS AND FAUCETS WILL BE TURNED OFF.  
4) IF A PARTICIPANT WISHES TO ESCAPE THE FACILITY, HE OR SHE MUST END THE LIFE OF ANOTHER PARTICIPANT AND COMPLETE THE CLASS TRIAL WITHOUT BEING DISCOVERED  
5) IF THE STUDENTS DISCOVER WHO THE KILLER IS AT TRIAL, HE OR SHE WILL BE IN VIOLATION OF THE RULES AND SHALL BE PUNISHED ACCORDINGLY. IF THE STUDENTS FAIL, THEY SHALL BE PUNISHED WHILE THE GUILTY PARTY ESCAPES

FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH THE RULES WILL RESULT IN CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

“Capital Punishment?” Questioned Matsushita. “Whats that?”

“Its death!” Kikuchi responded. “You get executed! Are we going to die?”

I could hear something. Teruachi’s ID card was apparently reading out everything for him. “Geez, it really seems like they want us all to die man, why not just come in and kill us all off themselves dude?” He seemed to be shaking his head.

I tried thinking of anything to contribute, but I didn’t think of much. Everyone started to look more dejected about our situation as we kept talking. Finally, I remembered something that I saw during a fit last night. “Hey, there were also those weird doors at the end of the dorm halls. They didn’t look like they had any handles though. What do you think those mean?”

Matsushita responded to me with a question. “Do you think they might be a way to get out?”

Otaka simply shook his head at Matsushita’s question. “I… Couldn’t manage to get it open… i'm sorry, I really tried I did!”

Matsushita just patted Otaka’s back, trying to cheer him up. “Its ok! You gave it your all!”

“Is that all?” Amai stated, right after we were all done. “God, we shouldn’t be fretting over how we got here, or what we’re doing, just, take a deep breath y’all, like chill. We’re all still alive after all.”

Michizoe hummed, piping in after Amai. “That's right! Like, there’s no need to feel so down! So lets go explore and give it our all!” Michizoe got up after this and, grabbing an orange off of the cart, bounced off.

“Hey, Why did you get to leave but I couldn’t?” shouted Kikuchi, chasing after her. One by one, the people from the lunch table got up and left to go do their own thing. I had stayed behind to finish my coffee, already feeling physically less tired, despite the lack of sleep I had. I had gotten up to leave before almost running into someone. Heisuke, still on the ground from when he fell earlier.

“Hey there, how’s the view from up there?”

After helping him up, he had sat down and began to talk to me. “Yeah, didn’t really feel like getting up, kinda embarrassed myself there didn’t I?”

I responded to him, rubbing the back of my neck. “Well you were acting a bit brash, but I don’t think it was unconfident.”

“Really?” he had responded. I reassured him, nodding my head. I began to root around my memory. Muto Heisuke… He said he was a pole vaulter, and I could very vaguely remember seeing the name on TV during the olympics. I decided that since I really was in no mood to go snooping around here after the goose chase I was sent on yesterday, I would spend my time on a conversation. I asked him about how he got into pole vaulting.

“Well, It started as a hobby at first, like, I only did it to give me something productive to do with my time”

“Well, yeah, but Pole vaulting is a bit more niche than say, football, or baseball!”

“Hey, when you have that kind of money lying around, anything is possible.”

I was surprised. He certainly looked like a rich kid, but it wasn’t until now that it was all but confirmed in my head. “What does your family do? Do they own any kind of businesses?

Heisuke nodded. “Yeah, my old man is like, the second in command to some bigwig CEO for some big corporation. He tends to keep me out of most of his affairs though. I'm pretty sure its just like one of those groups that buy and sell resources. I don’t really like to think about all the gritty details of what my father does.”

I refilled my cup, as Shishido had left the tray of food out by the table. “Your father’s livelyhood seems pretty important, why don’t you look into it more?

Heisuke sighed, putting his feet up on the table again. “Man, trying to focus on business and livelihood and all that just sorta stresses me out. I'm lucky that my pole vaulting got me somewhere in this life, but I don’t know what I would do if I had to take on a job like that, Tooooooo much stress and not enough fun. I'm not judging the man or anything, he apparently does what he does well, and it gets us a big fancy house, so who am I to complain?”

I seemed to understand what Heisuke was saying. Perhaps pole vaulting was his way of escaping from the outside world? I wasn’t entirely sure. My family was only really middle class, so it was interesting seeing the world from someone more wealthy than we are.

Heisuke pushed out their chair and stood up, stretching his arms out. “Well, It was really nice talking to you Waruki, but I really must get going, bumming around and stuffing my face isn’t exactly useful to anyone so Ill catch ya later!” With that, Heisuke left the cafeteria, leaving me truly alone. But, there was still some time left in the day, so I decided that I ought to go see what else I could do around here.

I walked around, prodding my eyePhone and looking at the map. From what I gathered, the main hallways all looped around into a square, with the laboratory with all the pods in the center, and the other amenities around it.

Eventually, after about 5 or 6 laps around our newfound entrapment, I managed to finally settle upon a location, the garden. I opened the glass doors and found a couple of people, minding their own business. Only one really came up to greet me though, Michizoe. Her bright yellow locks bouncing up and down as she came to greet me.

“Ah! Waruki! Hi!” She was as peppy as ever. I waved to her. “Ah, Hello Michizoe, how are you?”

Michizoe just turned her back to and began walking talking as she paced. “Well I Was feeling a bit negative so like, I wanted to go to where I was calm, so I came to the garden!”

I sat down on a bench near some pine trees. “So, Nature calms you down?

Michizoe came and sat down next to me. “Yup! That's why I became a hiker, there are all kinds of things on the mountains you know!” I understood what she meant. From what I could remember, trees always managed to calm me down. Especially cherry blossom trees. Cliche, I know, but I can’t help myself.

“This garden though, its not the same as a real mountain. You can only really walk a couple meters before you have to turn back, and there’s a lot more dangerous stuff in here, like the ants.” I suddenly remembered the problem that we had run into the day before, involving the fire ants. When I asked Michizoe about it, Their smile seemed to detract from high beaming to just a pitiful smile. “Yeah, Ueno got it good, I think he was just like, trying to construct something to help. He is the SHSL Survivalist after all.” Naoki Ueno, the SHSL Survivalist. He seemed to be very soft spoken. I felt bad, someone who was probably only trying to help got hurt before we could all really grasp the reality of our situation. “But its ok! When you didn’t return, we went to the infirmary ourselves to patch him up!”

Michizoe’s remark made me feel a bit of guilt. Its not like I had much of a choice, but I still felt bad about leaving Ueno alone. “Well I mean, He’s ok now though, right?”

Michizoe nodded. “Of course! All that's hurt now seems to be his ego.”

I Walked around the garden with Michizoe the rest of the afternoon, she was telling me all about the different kinds of plants here. Others that were also in the vicinity made a couple passing remarks as well. We even found Otaka up in one of the pine trees looking for any secret trapdoors. “Hey Otaka!” She called out to one of the tallest trees. “Find any yet?”

Immediately the large man descended from the tree, planting his feet on the ground. “No uuh… I didn’t find any! It was good practice though!” That's right, Otaka was the SHSL Tree Climber.

“Are you sure its safe up there?” I blurted out watching his rather speedy descent.

Otaka just sorta giggled. “Don’t worry little miss! I… I know what i'm doing, yeah!”

Michizoe bounced up and down “That's right! Otaka has scaled some of the tallest trees in the world!” Otaka interjected. “That I could do legally! I'm no trouble maker!” He was blushing.

Michizoe did not stop her ramble. “He even did it without any protective gear! Isn’t he the greatest?”

I had to take a step back. It was all really impressive. “Whoa! That's really cool! You must have worked hard at it, right?”

Otaka nodded. “Yeppers! I… do it a lot! It really makes me happy when i’ve reached the top!” I smiled. I felt like I started to understand Otaka a bit more.

“Is that why you started to climb trees?”

Otaka’s giggles started to fade out as I shot my question out. “Yeah, Something like that” he said, right before letting out a hearty yawn. I had gotten so caught up with exploring with Michizoe and talking that I hadn’t even noticed how late it was getting. Right on cue, an announcement played over the speakers.

“Uuh, Attention everyone! It is now 11:00pm! That means its nighttime! I hope you all rest in peace!.” 

The Overseer. His voice filled me with dread, and I found that I wasn’t the only one. Michizoe’s mood immediately dropped as soon as that robotic voice called out. I poked her, trying to cheer her up. “Hey, no need to fret! We made it past the first day, right?”

She smiled a little bit, nodding. I felt bad for her. Otaka also nodded, picking both of us up. “Alrighty! Ill take you both back so nobody tried anything funny, alright?” She must be just as scared as I was, but having Otaka lift her up brought right back to her high spirits. I had confidence though that we were all going to be alright. I was returned to my dorms and was able to go to sleep with a lot more ease in my heart.

I should have known that having ease in this place only lead to it being cruelly taken away.

"Good Mourning boys and girls! I have an extra special announcement for you in the Laboratory, so be there by 8am sharp!"

I wanted to just sleep in, hearing his voice sucked all the energy out of me, but I knew what would happen if I didn’t. He would give us all the migraines he gave us the other day, or worse. None of us knew the true gravity of his powers. Reluctantly, I as well as the 15 others made our way to where we had first woken up. Of course he was there, why wouldn’t he be? He was there, leaning on one of the pods, waiting patiently. All 16 of us were there on the other side of the room. The door was closed sure but we were all ready to run if he tried anything.

“Alright! Why are we here!” Immediately questioned Amai, pointing towards the automaton.

The Overseer simply raised their hands. “Whoa, easy there, i'm not going to hurt you, at least, not yet!

“Not yet?” Went Teruachi. “Dude… that's not exactly making all of us feel better man”

“Oh hush, the point is that you aren’t supposed to feel good! Making you kill each other isn’t exactly Love and cherry blossoms you know! I don’t really like all of your attitudes! All this talk about optimism and how you’re gonna escape without a single casualty! Well, I’ve been researching these kinda things you know, and I’ve found the solution! I'll just kill one of you!”

The room was deadly silent. There was no way that he could be serious, but I had a sickening feeling he was. He clapped, and on his screen was what looked like a wheel, or at least a section of it. It spun slowly, showing a little drawing of all of us.

“But hey! A rushed killing is still a good killing, so I'll give you a chance. I won’t spin right now, but by this time tomorrow, if I don’t see a corpse, ill spin the death wheel! Don’t worry though, I have a Random Number Generator built into me, so it will be completely fair! Now, Ill leave you all to breakfast, just watch your backs! Ill see you soon!”

One moment, the room was silent. However, that soon changed. Only a couple seconds after The Overseer left us did the room explode into panic.

Kikuchi was the first one to burst out. “Holy shit! I... What are we going to do?” It didn’t take much longer for most of everyone to leave. Those who didn’t immediately burst out of the room started screaming, grasping their heads or curling up on the floor, even Homura was shaken, finding herself unable to speak. All I could do was stop and stare at the carnage unfolding before me. What should I do? What could I do? I felt my pulse go to a standstill. One of us was going to die, one way or another, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. There was no hope for us ahead, we were in a situation of unequivocal despair. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoa! Now we've finally got the ball rolling! Chapter 1 moves fast, but thats just cause I suck at planning. I promise that the later chapters wont be as short! If there's anyone you want our dearest protag to talk to, feel free to say so in the comments! Thank you all for reading!


	4. Chapter 1: No Good Deed (Daily Life Pt. 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New Years Eve update! I hope you like it!

It didn’t take long for everyone around me to start panicking.

The motive, the one laid out by the Overseer, was much harsher than any of us was predicting when he started talking about getting us to kill. It was a 1 in 16 chance, sure, but one of us was going to die. I knew it in my heart, if someone was willing to kidnap us and lock us up and try to get us to partake in this sick and twisted battle royale, this was no bluff.

It only took a second, a second of losing my thought before snapping back to reality with the chaos around me. Most of everyone had already left, save for one or two people who were currently slowly dragging themselves out of the room. I was alone, except for one person. Kujou was there, still at the door, scribbling everything down in her notebook. I coughed, trying to get her attention

“Oh! Uuh… Hello Waruki, I uuh…” She took a couple steps back away from me.

“Look, i'm not gonna hurt you ok? I just… I imagine everyone’s just shaken up from the motive”

“Ok…” Kujou stepped closer to be just a bit. “I'm sorry… I just like, don’t feel the best, you know?”

I smiled warmly towards her. I knew everything was going horribly, but I chose to smile anyways. I hoped that if my smiles and happy demeanor could relax even one person, more would follow suit. I walked up to the doors to the laboratory. “Do you want to go somewhere? I think the others-”

Outside of the doors, I could hear some crashing from down the halls. With a strange amount of gumption, Kujou grabbed me by the wrist, and started pulling me away. “Come on! Something had to have happened! We need to go see!” I tried to protest, but Kujou kept shutting me down. “Please, I work for the press! The happenings of everything is my business!”

Both of us ran down the hallway til we managed to reach the source of the large noise, the infirmary. The entire medicine cabinet had been toppled over. Pill bottles, albeit still shut, were scattered all over the floor. It looked almost as if someone had started a riot. I could hear shouts and panic all throughout the facility as I simply stood there in the doorway. Kujou immediately ran in before me, scribbling in her notebook and muttering to herself. “Cabinet knocked down… culprit unknown…”

From down the halls, Shishido, Daishin, and Kazehaya came running over. “What in the heckie happened here?” asked Shishido as he saw the sight.

I took a deep breath, it was important in times like these that I remained calm. “I think someone knocked over the cabinet. We need to do something about this.”

Daishin nodded, turning to Kazehaya. “Hey, can you go get Homura? She should probably see this, ya know?  ” Kazehaya nodded, gave a sarcastic salute, and ran off.

It wasn’t long until Homura came back, pushing us aside. “Right. All of us need to talk, right now. Can you go and get everyone into the cafeteria, you two?” Homura ordered to Shishido and Daishin. They reluctantly went away.

About 20 minutes later, everyone had gathered in the cafeteria once again. They all looked much more agitated than the morning before. More people sat away from the main group, but nobody dared leave the room. I looked around, guilt and paranoia lining everyone’s faces as we tried not to make eye contact with each other. Surprisingly it was Kujou that made the first move, instead of Homura.

“Alright! Listen up! We... uuh… can’t be panicking like this! Cause this is what they want… right?”

While everybody was paying attention, nobody really was settling down.

“Well, what are we gonna do about it, someone is gonna die!” shouted Otaka from the back, clutching his shoulder.

Homura interjected. “We need to make some more rules, aside from the ones just given to us.”

Ueno perked up from his table upon hearing this. “Rules like… what?”

Homura began. “I think we need to monitor the Infirmary. It seems that during the entirety of this groups little… episode… that seemed to be the biggest point of interest, so I don’t want anyone with killing intent to be there.”

Amai perked up. “Yeah? How do you plan to enforce that.”

Amaterasu raised her hand. “I could do it from time to time”

Kikuchi scoffed. “I don't like it, we need more than that, how would Amaterasu enforce the rules on herself?”

Homura sternly replied. “If you don’t have trust in your fellow man, then all of us WILL die. As a Paramedic, I trust Amaterasu is noble enough to be trustworthy. Nobody can use anything in there without her permission. Understood?”

Amaterasu interjected. “Wait, like, all the time? But-” But Homura kept shushing her. “I… Guess... its fine...”

Otaka started, getting up out of his seat. “I mean, we all trust each other, right? We can get past this!”

Heisuke clearly didn’t want to be here. “Yeah, I don’t have anything wrong with me anyways so I don't really need to know all this, can I go now?”

Everyone was starting to talk over each other, finally losing interest in whatever everyone else was saying. As I tried to look around, Shishido called to my attention. “Ah! Waruki! Can y’ help me in th’ kitchen in a bit?” I nodded my head.

Eventually, we all left the cafeteria, with me following Shishido to the kitchen. He had wanted my help for some reason. He immediately started taking out some ingredients and fiddling with the stove. He moved so quickly and elegantly I couldn’t keep track, befitting of the SHSL Caterer. “How’re y’ holdin up there?” he asked me.

I seemed to be caught off guard by the question. “Uuh… fine…? Is that why you called me in here?” Shishido laughed. “Nah, ah just figured it’d make me a good friend if ah checked up on ya.”

“So, A lotta people are really on edge about this whole motive thing, right” Shishido continued. I listened in. “Well, Ah wanna do somethin’ special f’ some people. What if we had like, a big party?”

I thought about it for a bit. A Party might be a good idea for easing the tension, but there were too many variables. Who’s to say someone wouldn’t be murdered during it?

“I think… we should do something a bit more relaxing with the others…” Shishido kept working in the kitchen, chopping some peppers and onions.

“Alrighty, well, do y’ have any ideas what we could do? I wannit t’be fun an’ relaxin at th’ same time.” I watched as he moved the ingredients with grace.

“How about pulling out one of those board games in the lounge? We can get some people together and play?”

Shishido sauteed the vegetables in the pan. “Ooh! That sounds like a wonderful idea! Do ya think I could make some snacks for whatever we try t’ play? I only know a couple card an' dice games from back on th’ countryside.”

I nodded towards Shishido. “Of course we’d be willing to teach you!”

Shishido laughed. "Well, thats good! I love th' countryside almost as much as I love m' wife, but it comes in a close second. Th' city lifes a bit too much f' me.

My jaw nearly dropped. "Whaaaaat? You're married? Aren't you a little young for that?"

Shishido smiled more as he kept preparing food. "I mean, maybe, but th' circumstances were tough where I lived. Surely you remember Hurricane uuh..."

"Hurricane Junko?" I asked. "Yeah, it was a little devastating, but the city managed to hold together.

I saw Shishido sigh. I really hoped I didn't bring up any more bad memories. "Well... It wasn' as good out in th' country. My folks had t' be hospitalized... I had t' take care of m' siblings myself... but... We got some help from th' family down the road, an' the daughter was really cute an' liked working in the fields and we just sorta..."

I could see Shishido's face light up with a burning blush. I giggled a little bit. "Awwwww, someone's in love. Come on, whats she like? You can't just say you're married to someone and not gush about them."

Shishido put his hands into his face. "Aaaah, its just, she's so cute, an' understandin', an' able t' take care of m' siblings like they are her own kids. Her name is Keiko... but I sometimes tease her by calling her Koko-Chan. She always gets so flustered... its so adorable... I love my wife very much..." 

I saw Shishido reach into his pocket and pull out a small silver ring. I immediately figured out that it was his wedding ring. "Wow! You still have that?" 

Shishido nodded. "Yeppers... it was with m' clothes when I first woke up... I just keep it in m' pocket while I work so it don't fall out."

I made a noise that I probably would never want to make ever again. "Shishido, you are too adorable when you talk about your wife. She must be a very lucky woman to have met someone like you!" 

Shishido nodded. "Yeah... I..." He suddenly got a very worrying and sorrowful tone on his face. "I just... miss her... a lot..." 

Shishido was soft hearted, but didn't seem like the type of person to cry. Still though, I walked over to him. "Well, it just means we all gotta work together to get out of here. You're gonna see Keiko again, alright?"

Shishido smiled as I put my hand on his shoulder "yeah... you're right... besides, I should be preparin' for th' party... not mopin' around. A hard workin' farmer never takes a break."

"Yeah!" I called out to him. "Thats the spirit!"

“So!” Shishido turned off the stove, rooting through the cupboards for a styrofoam bowl. “How about later t’night? It’d be nice and quiet, and I doubt we would be bothered by th’ overseer.” He had handed me a steamed vegetable mix in the styrofoam bowl, covered with saran wrap and complete with plastic fork.

“Yeah, that works for me, but who do you think would be willing?”

He smiled at me. “Don’cha worry Waruki! Ill handle that. Just go take care, and ill see ya tonight!” understandingly, we both waved to each other as I took my food out into the cafeteria to eat.

The only other one sitting out there was Kazehaya. Looking deep into a book. I sat down with my food relatively close hoping to strike up a conversation before remembering how unsociable Kazehaya was. I ate part of my food, before saying something. “Hey, what are you reading there?”

Kazehaya responded with “A book.” Smartass.

“Well, what kind of book is it?” Kazehaya got up and sat at the same table I was at, showing me the book. “The History of Hope's Peak Academy”.

“Its strange…” Kazehaya continued, pointing towards the book. Indeed there was everything in this book, from when it was founded all the way up to the year 2019, one year before it began.

“Why is it so strange?” I asked Kazehaya. She closed it before sliding it beside me.

“Its so… abrupt…” I opened it up to the end. She was right, There were no references or sources or anything. After the class of 2019’s pictures, there was just the other hardcover back of the book.

“What do you think it means?”

Kazehaya shrugged at me. “I'm not sure…” I finished up my food. I had gave the book back to Kazehaya before putting my stuff in the garbage.

“I'm going to the library so that I can research this more, alright?” Kazehaya nodded to me. “Good luck, Waruki.”

I had stepped into the library ready to do a little bit of investigating of my own. There were a couple others here too. I could see Daishin dooding at one of the tables, and Kikuchi fiddling around on her eyePhone. I decided to walk up to Kujou though. I felt like we hadn’t had enough of a chance to know each other earlier, and I was always up to do some investigating, which appeared to be what Kujou was doing. She had a pile of books on a table nearby, and was hastily scribbling down in her notebook. I walked up and tried to get her attention, but she must have been too engrossed in her work. I knocked on the table, finally seeming to get Kujou out of her trance.

“Ah! Waruki! Uuh… Hello again! What can I aah, do for you?” I started browsing the books that she had piled up. They were mostly nonfiction books.

“What are you doing?”

She grabbed one of the books from me, flipping it open. “I'm looking! Maybe if I can find any clues I can get us out of here before one of us is killed?” Her words sort of scared me, but I knew that wasn’t her intention.

“What makes you think they are going to go through with it?”

Kujou put her book and journal down. “Waruki, We need to have a talk. You would agree that there are a lot of bad people in the world, right Waruki?” The sudden severity of the topic caught be off guard. I had to take a moment to think about it, pulling up a chair and sitting in the table.

“Well, obviously, but what do you mean by that?”

Kujou started to show me her notebook. There was a much more refined map of the facility that we were in.

“Daishin helped me with this, look how much there is. Do you think that they would spend however much money this cost to just lock us up as a joke?” I took her notebook and looked at the diagram. It was quite detailed. In the margins of the map Kujou seemed to have written some price estimates. I decided to put in my own thoughts.

“What if this was used for something before? Like it was full of people, and the one who did this to us just took advantage?”

Kujou scribbled some more down. “Hmm… that is a good theory, but it almost seems too perfect, I doubt this floor is up to building code as well…”

I stared towards Kujou. “Well, what does it matter?”

Kujou looked down towards the floor, sighing. “If they are willing to lock us up, and willing to encourage us to slaughter each-other, then there is a high chance that this is real, and whoever gets rolled tomorrow morning will die. I don’t know how, but it would probably be lethal.”

Kujou’s words brought my mood down quite a bit. I started to fiddle with my hands. “Well, what do you want us to do?”

Kujou kinda giggled a bit in an almost self-defeatist way. “Aheheh, You shouldn’t look to me for leadership. I heard from Shishido a little bit before you came here that you were having a little get together?”

The mention of Shishido’s board game night brought my spirits back up a little bit. “Oh yeah! Are you going?”

Kujou shook her head. “I have way too much investigation to do, The press needs to stay on top of things you know!”

I scratched my head a bit. “Aren’t you just an editor though?”

I had received a couple more giggles for that one. “Yeaaaahhhh, but really, it kinda bums me out. I wish I was more than just an editor, you know? When I was in middle school, I wanted to be an investigative journalist, so I joined the school newspaper.”

I suddenly got more interested in Kujou’s words now that the topic wasn’t harsh and serious. I was always the type for more casual conversation. “How did that work out for you?”

Kujou shut her eyes in reminiscence and giggled. “I got kicked out for trying to spy on people’s gossip. Was a lotta fun though!”

I started to ask another question when I felt a tapping on my shoulder. I looked back to see Daishin smiling at me.

“Hey, its almost time for the party, why don’t we go down to the lounge?” I had pulled out my eyePhone and looked at the clock that was on it. He was right, it was shockingly late. I must have been so caught up with talking to Kujou that the nighttime announcement must have passed me by. Good thing there wasn’t really any rule about being up at night. I pushed some books up towards Kujou, and said my goodbyes. She seemed pleased with our conversation.

“Take care Waruki, I truly hope I can see you tomorrow.”

Me and Daishin had walked together to the lounge, where Michizoe also was. “Is this really everyone?” I asked.

Michizoe, who was rooting through the cabinet to find a board game, started to speak up again. “Aside from Shishido, who isn’t here yet, it seemed nobody wanted to come with us. That's ok though! Who says we can’t have fun with 4 people!”

Daishin joined in with the excitement. “Aah thats alright! They are probably just shaken up! Plus it's not like a lot of these games are able to be played with like 12 or 13 players!”

As we started to chatter amongst ourselves, Shishido finally showed up. He was rubbing his head with one hand, and holding a platter of cheese and crackers in the other. It had been quite a bit since we all had arrived, so Daishin asked what took so long.

Shishido placed his snacks down. “I got accosted by some ruffian while makin’ these here snacks!”

I gasped. “Were you attacked? Are you ok?”

Shishido giggled. “Don’cha worry about me, alright Waruki? They may a’ pushed me t’ the wall but I got ‘em right and good. I know how t’ take care a m’self, Ok?”

I was still kind of worried about him, but the others around me weren’t as so. Michizoe pulled out some fantasy board game and put it on the table. She was sitting on the floor, while Daishin and I found some wooden chairs. As he had made our snacks, we let Shishido have the recliner that was at the table.

“Hmm, there are a lot of pieces and papers!” Michizoe said, trying to pull everything out from the box. “What do you think we are supposed to do with them all?”

Daishin seemed to perk up as he saw all the pieces. “Oh! Its Castles and Catacombs! This is one of my favorite games! Waruki, can you get that book in that cabinet over there?" I went down and pulled out a huge book of rules. I walked over past Shishido, who was resting in his recliner and gave it to Daishin, who was handing out character sheets.

“Jeez” I began. “This game’s pretty complicated, isn’t it?”

Daishin just laughed. “Ah, you’ll get the hang of it, here, ill help you create some characters!” With Daishin’s help, we all tried our best to play this board game, all of us gorging ourselves on the food that Shishido had brought us.

“So you really like this game, right Daishin?” I had asked him.

He ran his hand through his red hair. “Yeah, I was always known as the map guy from our gaming group, you know? I loved making dungeons and islands, it doesn’t really match up to making a map of an already explored or civilized place, its much more exiting in comparison.”

Michizoe responded. “Maybe when we all get out of here we can go on a voyage! Like, to some big deserted island and you could make a map of that!”

I had giggled. Everyone seemed to have fun with it, it was enough to make us forget about what would be happening tomorrow morning. “Haha yeah! I’d be down for that! I'm not entirely sure how much i’d be of help, but that would be fun! I hear Heisuke’s family is rich! He could come too! Or at least let us borrow some kind of boat.”

Shishido tried including himself in, but he looked much more tired. "Ah think... his family... got'sa boat?"

Daishin slapped his hand down on the table, causing some of our pieces to bounce. “Then its a deal then! We’ll go exploring! This is where fate is taking us! You in Shishido?”

We all looked towards Shishido, who wasn’t really looking too hot. “Eeh… yeah id be willin’” he had mumbled out.

Michizoe shook his shoulder a bit. “Hey, hey are you alright?”

Shishido flashed up his thumb. “Is all good, m’ stomach just feels like its gonna empty itself… and I have a monster headache…”

Daishin put his hand to his chin. “Hmm, we do seem to be missing some drinks, lll go bring you some water, alright? I hear thats good for like, stomachs and heads and stuff”

Michizoe perked up. “I can go get some headache medicine from the infirmary!” Shishido tried to protest, but his words came out mumbled and illegible. Michizoe tried to stop him from protessting “No way!, You definitely need some care. Waruki, can you stay here with him?”

Michizoe had started to show some leadership, which while I didn’t think was impossible, was definitely strange. I nodded my head as they both left the room. I sat near Shishido, trying to do my best to make him comfortable, I had gone and tried to find anything, but there was nothing I could do.  I made sure he was sitting down, I made sure he was comfortable, but he wasn’t responding. He just sat in his chair, as he had since he had got here. Every time I had tried to talk to him he had these episodes of blanking out before gently snapping back to reality. I was almost scared that he was passing out, but he managed to hold in there. Was he sick? Did he catch the flu? I didn't know what else to do, so I tried to ask him if he wanted to move his character, but he didn't seem all that invested. We sat there for a couple more minutes in awkward, painful silence. I didn't like seeing Shishido hurt. It made me feel bad. If his wife were here, I was sure she would know how to fix this.

Eventually, he had turned to me and took my hand. He was a lot less warmer than I had expected. “Waruki, please… f’ me… f’ everyone here… find a way outta here… imma be… countin on ya’... to keep… them… safe…” The sudden seriousness of Shishido's words urged me to attention, but as he said these last words to me, Shishido’s grip on me suddenly let as he went limp in his chair.

 

 

Never to move again.

 

The next things that I remembered were a blur. Daishin and Michizoe returned to the room only to see me trying to shake him awake, crying out his name with futility. “What… What happened here?” Daishin shouted as he dropped the glass and pitcher that he had. Michizoe pushed past him to check Shishido’s pulse. Her face suddenly went ghostly white as the intercom in the room (and I could only presume everywhere else) suddenly started playing.

 

_*DING DONG DONG DING!*_

 

From the TV that was in the room, I could see The Overseer’s face, happier than I had ever seen it.

 

 _“Attention Participants! A body has been discovered! After 3 hours, we will hold a class trial! Good_ _luck, and do your best!”_

 

As I heard those words, I could feel my blood running cold. Shishido was dead, and there was nothing I could have done to save him. Or was there something I could have done? I wasn’t sure, I just wanted to be anywhere but here. Unfortunately, there was no escape from the grasps of death, and now I had to face it head on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shishido's dead happy new year


	5. Chapter 1: No Good Deed (Deadly Life)

**CHAPTER 1, NO GOOD DEED: DEADLY LIFE**

 

It felt as if the world was spinning around me, I couldn’t keep track of a single point or idea. Shishido was dead- no, I watched Shishido die. I was with him as he breathed his last breaths. Daishin was having a hard time maintaining his calm and bright composure, and Michizoe was tearing up, brought to her knees by the sudden death of her friend. I was standing in the middle of the commotion. I could hear the door to the lounge opening behind me. The announcement must have woken up everyone who had been asleep. Either that or The Overseer personally shook them awake. I really wouldn’t put it past him to make sure everyone sees this. I could barely move, I could sense the things around me, though my thoughts were just taking, it had no time to process anything going a mile a minute. Did someone really murder Shishido? What was going to happen to us? I watched as people pushed past me and started to crowd around the chair that Shishido was in. The Overseer had popped up behind us all, startling us. The screams of my peers finally snapped me back.

 

“Well Well! Good to see all 16 managed to cram themselves in here!”

Amai shouted at the robot. “Don’t do that! You’ll give us a heart attack!” The Overseer just did a robotic chuckle.

“Whats Wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost! Sorry, ghosts aren’t real, and if they were, The Amazing Foodboy over here could give away some vital secrets in regards to his murder!”

“His… Murder?” Matsushita questioned. “So… That means!-”

The Overseer nodded their head. “That's correct! One of you managed to do the lad in! Now it may not seem like it, but I hate crime! Its despicable! Horrible! So, you lot are going to bring his killer to justice! The one thing I hate more than crime is a miscarriage of justice… I think… I remember looking that up on TVTropes once!”

“Enough of that…” Ueno began “We have to… investigate...?”

Kazehaya was looking in her ElectroID. “It appears so.”

Kikuchi boisterously pushed her way to the front of the crowd to try and confront the Overseer face to face, or as much as she could for being the shortest in the group. “Hey you! You mentioned trying to find a killer earlier, right? Whats that supposed to mean? We don’t exactly have judges and lawyers!”

The overseer shot his head down, startling Kikuchi and sending her back into Teruachi’s arms. “Well my dear, our class trial is a little bit different from a regular trial! You will all be put in the room with the loveliest of accommodations, and after a period of roundabout discussion, you will all get to vote for someone! Don’t think of it as court proceedings, think of it as… a murder mystery gameshow!!!"

Yukimura Snapped. “This isn’t a game! You said before that if we got it wrong we all died!"

“Everyone but the culprit” Kujou mused, seeming to be lost in her thoughts. “So… we need to do our very best.”

Finally, The Overseer started getting cheery. “That's right! Do your best! Believe it or not i'm not cruel and really want to see you all succeed! However, I am bound by the rules my creators gave me!”

I piped up. “Creators?” The Overseer seemed a little shocked. “Whoa! Can’t give too much exposition at the start, so ill make this quick! I have loaded a file with important info on your eyePhones to get you started, You have 3 hours, that's 180 minutes. Ill see you all soon!”  
  
And with that, The Overseer was gone. All of us had felt a beeping in our pockets. We pulled out our respective eyePhones and turned them on. Finally, the “SeerFile” app was unlocked. Even though doing so left a pit in my stomach, I clicked on it.

 _SEERFILE 1_  
_  
_ The victim is Katsu Shishido, the SHSL Caterer. Estimated time of death is 11:30 at night. The victim is found lying slouched in a chair in the Lounge. While there is evidence of a strong blow delivered to the front of the head, there is also some bruising on his right elbow. The cause of death is estimated to be Internal Hemorrhaging. No foreign substances or toxins were found in the victims body.

 

[SEERFILE 1) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

Reading the words made me feel sick. Shishido was my friend, and to think someone would just up and throw away his life just so they could get out… I didn’t want to believe it but in the back of my mind I knew I couldn’t deny it. I looked around, people were talking with each other, trying to make sense of this confusing situation. I suddenly had an idea. “Hey, uuh, should we like, keep guards, near the body, if we’re gonna investigate the entire floor?”

Homura nodded at me, even though the look on her face was of contempt. Did I do something wrong. “I was thinking the same thing, Waruki.” The first one to speak up was Otaka. “I… can do it if you want! I'm… strong…”

Heisuke also added onto Otaka’s volunteering. “Yeah, I can do it too. I'm a pretty nimble guy. Plus, two are better than one, right?” For the first time in a while, Homura smiled a bit.

“Alright, I believe that's settled. Now, allow me to escort you out, Waruki”

As I was “escorted” (more like forcibly dragged out) i started to kick up a fuss “Hey! Whats the big problem with me being in there?"

The look on Homura’s face was icy and cold, as she glared at me. “Daishin and Michizoe informed me that Shishido died while you were alone with him, therefore, that makes you the prime suspect. I do not want you to hinder us as we uncover your plot.”

I started to get more heated, to imply so quickly that I killed him, it took me everything I could not to shove Homura. However, Homura looked like she was stronger than me, and could probably kick my ass in a fight.“I'm not the killer!” I shouted. “You have no proof!”

Homura started to scoff. “That's why we’re investigating, to get proof.” Before I could throw any punches, I felt a hand on my shoulder. Kujou must have been out in the halls beforehand.

“Its OK Homura, I can take her from here.” Homura nodded and went back inside. I looked towards Kujou. “You… don’t actually think I did it, right?”

Instead of answering, she had her face buried in her notebook again. After an awkwardly long amount of time, she appeared to be looking over her notes. “I'm not sure, but… with Homura as demanding as she is, she’s gonna probably lead the charge against you…”

I went and leaned on a nearby wall, letting myself drop and sit on the floor. I put my hands to my face. Everyone was starting to think it was me. Kujou knelt down and started to speak. “Waruki, sitting and moping isn’t going to help you. If you really want to clear your name, you need to investigate, and find the killer for yourself. We only have 3 hours, and time is ticking away quickly.”

With her help, I got up to my feet. “Thank you Kujou, I'm glad that you have my back.” Kujou nodded, before starting to walk back into the room.

As she was going in, her head turned over her shoulder for one last message. “You’re smart, you can do this… I don’t want to believe you are the killer, if you were…” A look of sorrow- no, despair lingered on Kujou’s face for a second before she slammed the door to the lounge shut. I was on my own. I needed somewhere to think, I went to the library and sat down at one of the nearby chairs. Was there anything at all that I could remember? Shishido came in looking perfectly fine when we got there. Actually, no, he wasn’t fine. He said that he was attacked, and got hit on the head, right? And then he went to the infirmary, and then went to the lounge. I smiled a bit. I might be able to actually piece everything together.

 

[SHISHIDO’S ACCOUNT) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

I had no more business left in the library, but I would come back here if I had some down time and I needed a place to think. As I left and walked down the halls, I could see more people had left the lounge. As I passed people in the halls, they looked at me with a variety of expressions. Some fear, others disgust, disbelief, did they really think i was the culprit? My first stop would be the Kitchen, where Shishido was attacked. Also in the Kitchen was Daishin, who was poking around in the drawers.

He saw me enter and despite a brief look of discomfort, coughed into his shoulder and returned to his cheery self. “Waruki! How’s the investigation!” I wasn’t sure if it was just a front, or if he really wanted to believe I didn’t do it. Was this The Overseer’s goal? To spread distrust amongst us?

“I'm doing fine, I just figured that there would be clues here.”

Daishin nodded. “Well, I didn’t find anything, but if him being pushed into the wall was correct… Waruki, can you stand over there for a sec? I need to visualize this.”

I figured that, as a cartographer, Visualizing things would be something Daishin was good at so I obliged, However, when I walked over there, a small crunching sound came out from under my feet. Daishin must have heard it to, as he had walked over here and bent down to look at it. I tried touching it, it felt like small glass shards… what were glass shards doing in a place like this?

 

[GLASS SHARDS) HAVE BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

“Hmm…” Daishin seemed lost in thought. He stood up. “Well, no use fretting, I'm sure we’ll figure out what it means when we get to the trial, so it will be just fine!” Always an optimist Daishin tended to be. I did his visualization exercise with him, standing where he believed that Shishido was when he got attacked.

“Why do you think he was standing here?”

Daishin tapped his temples. “Always look at the finer details, there’s a bit of a mess left behind, from when he was preparing that platter.” He was right, there was some wetness and scuff marks on the counter. Looking at how much Shishido did for us, it started to make me really upset again, he was so selfless and it got him killed. Daishin kept his distance, but tried to cheer me up regardless.

“I know things are tough when people like him are gone, but like, think about it! That platter we all had was the best thing I ever ate, and i'm sure you and Michizoe can say the same too!” I nodded. It was pretty good, and I was really thankful for all the effort he put into it.

  
[PARTY SNACKS) HAVE BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

Neither of us could find anything else, so we exited and bid each other fairwell. Daishin wanted to check if there was anything amiss in the dorm hallways, so I went off to the next place I could think of note, the infirmary. However, when I got there, Amaterasu was still waiting outside. She stuck a hand out at me. I could feel a wave of malcontent wash over me. “Don’t tell me i'm not allowed in here too.”

Amaterasu simply shook her head quickly. “No no! Of course not! Its just that even during investigations, people need to take their medicine, and I have to watch them! Or… did you forget that rule?” I hadn’t had a need for anything out of the infirmary since my big headache, so it had slipped my mind, but it was true that she was the one who had to watch anyone coming in or out of the infirmary.

 

[INFIRMARY RULES) HAVE BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

“So… Can I come in?” I asked Amaterasu. She simply turned around and opened the door. When I walked inside the infirmary, it was much cleaner than I remembered it being.

“Do you like it?” Amaterasu boasted. “When it had been toppled over after the motive, we all helped to clean it up.”

“Really?” I asked.

“Yes, You were busy with Shishido, so we figured you were helping out with lunch, but Otaka, Ueno, Homura, Amai and I all helped clean it up.”

 

[MESS CLEANUP) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS.

 

I started to giggle a bit. “No way, someone like Amai actually volunteered to help? What, did he want a kiss from you or something?”

Amaterasu once again shook her head. “No, he’s actually really helpful! I think he’s just compensating, his talent isn’t much use to us in here.”

I was looking over the spotless infirmary, listening to Amaterasu speak. When she was done, I turned and began to ask her some things too. “Shishido came in here, right?”

Amaterasu nodded. “Yeah, came in with a platter. Looked great, I had a couple things, I would have come to that party if I wasn’t on infirmary duty. But yeah, he took his stuff and left.”

I looked a little shocked. “Did you pay attention to anything he did?”

Amaterasu sighed. “The kid was in a hurry, plus I doubt someone like that could hurt a fly. I only made sure he wasn’t stealing anything. Ugh, his talking was kinda hard to understand though, just thinking about it gives me a headache.”

 

[AMATERASU’S ACCOUNT) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

“And he had special permission from Homura too, she told me so. Never told me what though, but-” As Amaterasu was speaking, she was getting some Headache Medicine from the cabinet, however thankfully she stopped when she looked in the bottle. She seemed the type to talk a lot, so whatever it must have been was big to get her to stop. I slowly walked over, asking her what the problem was. As I was walking she hastily pulled out another bottle, one for deficiencies for platelets it seemed.

“Someone switched them.” Her voice was scarily serious, the first time I had ever heard something as serious from her.

“What do you mean someone switched them? I asked.

She had poured them all out onto the counter and started working on switching them back. “There’s only a couple, but someone must have accidentally mixed in these blood thinners with these coagulants, and vice versa... God dammit, this is what gets people hurt!”

 

[SWITCHED PILL BOTTLES) HAVE BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

I tried to help, but Amaterasu snapped at me. “Just go! Ill be fine!”

I took a couple of steps back in shock. I didn’t expect to be snapped at. Homura appeared in the doorway. “Whats going on? I heard shouting!”

She had taken one look at me and pointed accusingly towards me. “Waruki! What are you doing?”

Amaterasu piped up from behind me. “She isn’t doing anything! God just let the poor kid rest! First you tell the other 14 of us she’s the killer and then walk away to leave us to do your dirty work! Whats wrong with you?”

I looked up surprised. “What? You told them I killed him?”

Homura looked genuinely taken aback by Amaterasu and I’s comments. “I-I was just doing my due diligence! A-A-And D-don't speak with me that way! Or else…”

Amaterasu turned around and barked at Homura. “Or else what? You’ll fire me? Too late! I don’t even want to be here 24/7 like you want me to! I couldn’t even go to the little get together like I wanted to because you told me I wasn't allowed!” I

Could feel Homura’s ego as a leader started shrinking more and more as Amaterasu lashed out. I was caught in the crossfire of it all, just stepping back, it was quite awkward to be between two people fighting. “Ah, well I uuh… Can I speak with you outside Waruki?”

Even though I was scared of what I would hear, I obliged, as she quickly darted outside. I turned to Amaterasu quickly and waved my goodbyes. She seemed much less angry at me than at Homura. Outside, Homura was leaned up against a wall, looking quite distraught. She started to speak, even if her face was turned away from mine.

“Hey… Waruki… i'm... sorry.” Despite everything that had happened earlier, I felt like Homura might actually had been serious about her apology. “I’ve been a bit too demanding of others, and just, i'm sorry.” I was starting to feel bad, but this was the person who villainized me to the entire class, so I didn’t feel as bad.

“Homura, do you still think i'm the killer?”

Homura looked towards me sorrowfully. “Upon hearing Daishin and Michizoe’s testimonies, that would be the first conclusion you arrive at… however…” Homura looked away again. It almost appeared as if she was in deep thought, but I think she might just be feeling guilty about accusing me. “Hey… Waruki, can I ask you something?”

I nodded. “Of course.”

Homura turned towards the lounge. “During this little party you had, what did Shishido do?” I didn’t really want to try remembering when he was alive, but if it would help, I did.

“After bringing us the snacks, he pretty much sat in his chair the entire time, he barely was moved.”

"Thank you Waruki.” I asked her why it was important, and she explained. “The bump on his head appears to be from much later than the time of death, If it was, it wouldn’t be as developed as it is.”

I couldn’t help but think that the fact she had shared was painfully obvious.

 

[STATE OF THE BODY) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

  
“Now, is there anything you wanted to ask me about?” She had said, sternly. I thought about everything that I had learned so far.

“Yes, there was one thing. Did Shishido ever like, need any medication?”

Homura looked shocked. “How did you… Were you the one who stole it!” For a moment, Homura went right back to her stern, villainizing self, before relaxing a bit and apologizing.

“Stole what?” I asked.

Out of a pocket in her pants, she took out a blank piece of paper. “Shishido needed medication, so he wrote a note down and gave it to me, however…” Homura started to look frustrated. “I'm not sure when it happened, but someone must have switched it out with a blank piece of paper when I wasn’t looking!”

So, what Amaterasu had said earlier was correct, Shishido was taking medication. “Is it ok if… I ask what the medication is for?”

Homura shrugged. “I didn’t want anyone to know, in case it put him in danger, but I guess there’s no use keeping secrets about him now. He had Type A Hemophilia”

 

[MEDICAL NOTE) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

I thought about Homura’s words. I definitely had an idea of what had happened to Shishido now that that piece of information had been brought to attention. “Thanks Homura, you really are a big help.”

She genuinely smiled at me, and started towards the lounge. “Thank you Waruki, I think… You should be allowed back into the lounge. Lets- ” Her words were cut off by the sounds of the intercom buzzing to life. The Overseer’s robotic voice played through the hall.

 “Uuh, Can you all hear me? Time’s up! It's time for the exiting class trial! Please meet me back in the laboratory so we can get started!”

 And once again, his voice left us. Homura froze in her place, while I felt a chill run down my spine. Had it been 3 hours already? It had only felt like 20 minutes of walking around. I Hadn’t even got the chance to investigate Shishido’s body! I never even got to say my goodbyes… I’d say time flies when you’re having fun but… this wasn’t fun. Investigating the murder of one of my friends was anything but fun!

“We should go” Homura instructed. She was right, there was no time right now, and I had a sickening feeling that The Overseer would punish tardiness with extreme prejudice. I swallowed my fears and started walking behind Homura to the laboratory. What I was feeling, was it fear? I had a good idea of what happened, so I shouldn’t feel scared, but I am. Do I really not believe in myself that much? No! I have to believe in myself… otherwise…

I stood in front of the doors leading to the Laboratory. I couldn’t hesitate now. If I hesitated, we could all fall victim to the killer. I pushed the doors open. Everyone else was there poking around the rooms. There were no more pods. Every single pod seems to have been replaced with a witness stand. If this trial didn’t kill me, the symbolism of having us all stand at a witness stand would.

Amai was the first one to notice my presence. “Well, if it isn’t everyone’s favorite killer!” He looked way too smug, it annoyed me.

I snapped back at him. “Yeah well… I didn’t!”

It was honestly kind of embarrassing, not being able to think of a good comeback, but Homura added to me. “I may have been too hasty with my judgements, we need to discuss this rationally.”

Kikuchi started bouncing up and down. “Whaa? But didn’t you say that she was the killer before? A good leader like you shouldn’t go back on your word! What are you, weak and malleable? I don’t want that in a leader!”

Kazehaya punched her in the shoulder with a pronounced. “Quiet you” as Teruachi held up his hands.

“O… kayyyyyyyy… lets not fight, alright? Its all cool, we’re gonna be fine my dudes... “

Everyone started to talk amongst themselves when The Overseer came out. From under the floor rose a large throne, behind the stand marked with my name. “My my you boys and girls sure love to bicker! Why don’t you save it for the actual trial?” Everyone was speechless. It was as if they wanted to speak, but out of fear for repercussions they remained silent. “Now then, everyone in your spots! It may be 2 in the morning but justice waits for nobody!”

After a bit of walking around, we all managed to find our spots. I luckily (or unluckily) had by back to The Overseer’s Throne, with Amai and Heisuke to each of my sides. Michizoe was directly across from me, looking quite nervous and gripping her podium. We were all positioned in a circle, maybe so that we could all see each other's faces of despair and distrust. I took a deep breath.

Shishido... he was always a bit rough around the edges, but he was always nice to everyone and his selflessness knew no bounds. Was that selflessness and caring why someone like him was murdered? Murdered... by one of us?

There was nothing I could do now but hope.

Hope that all of us could pull together and find Shishido’s killer. Hope that all of us should be able to work together, 14 against 1. Hope that all of us would be able to survive this class trial.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The plot thickens! Who do you think the killer is in this case? Feel free to let me know in the comments!


	6. Chapter 1: No Good Deed (Class Trial)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Im sorry this took so long to come out! With v3 my schedule has been fucked as far as writing go, as well as applications. Well, this is the longest chapter so far, so have fun!

**THE CLASS TRIAL FOR THE MURDER OF KATSU SHISHIDO IS NOW IN SESSION**

 

Before any of us could say a thing, the Overseer was the first to speak up. “Now then, allow me to begin with a simple explanation of the rules. So, your votes will determine the killer! If you vote for the person who killed Katsu Shishido, then only they will be punished, and the rest of you can continue your entrapped lives. However, if you vote for the wrong one… I will punish everyone besides the blackened and the one who deceived you all will get to leave this place! Now then, lets begin.”

Homura looked around at all of us before turning towards The Overseer. “I want to confirm one thing first, is there really a killer amongst us? This isn’t some plot orchestrated by you?”

The Overseer nodded. “Of course! One of you definitely offed him.”

Daishin was the next to speak up. “And what about that over there?” He pointed to one of the trial stands. Shishido’s face was pasted on some kind of picture frame, with a large red X stroke between it.

The Overseer seemed way too happy to explain. “Of course, I felt bad that he got to be left out just cause he died, so I made this homage to him! Plus, if you’re ever feeling hopeless, you can just look to his lifeless gaze to give you motivation to find his killer!”

Ueno spoke up, softly. “That… isn’t really… helping…”

Heisuke giggled to himself beside me. “Do we really need to discuss this, We already know what happened.”

Matsushita looked shocked. “Aah, do we?”

Heisuke nodded. “I don't know if you all knew, but I did some investigating of myself, so let me explain.” He suddenly turned towards me with a rather scary face. “Waruki Kimiko! After Daishin and Michizoe left to help, You hit Shishido over the head! Killing him! Case closed, we can start the votes.”

I just looked at him, not with fear but more so annoyed confusion. “That's… not what happend at all. I didn’t hit him.”

Heisuke scoffed. “And what would make me believe that?”

I sighed. What a pain this was becoming. “The body, remember? The time of death doesn’t match up with how developed it was, right Homura?”

Homura nodded. “It is way to developed to have been inflicted that recently. It must have happened in the past.”

I took a little pride in looking smugly towards Heisuke, who had his back turned to me. “Yeah yeah, so I got the cause of death wrong, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t foul play at hand!”

Teruachi scoffed. “Dude, it's murder, that's like, the definition of foul play. There’s no like, not foul play murder, dude”

Kujou nodded. “I agree, but I think what Heisuke means is that someone planned this.”

Yukimura looked over from her podium, she appeared to be very uncomfortable with the situation. “I a-a-agree… But like… there were no p-p-poisons used… r-right… The f-file said so.”

Kazehaya rubbed the back of her neck. “...Cross contamination?”

I knew there was no way this was true, so I spoke up. “No, That's wrong! There’s no way that it was tampered with. I mean, all of us ate the snacks equally, right?”

Daishin clapped his hands together. “That's right, we did!”

Michizoe piped up as well in agreeance with Daishin. “Yeah yeah! We were playing a board game and eating up all the snacks and it was so fun and delicious and-”

Amai interrupted her. “That's enough, lets not get carried away there, alright babe?”

Michizoe made a sour face. “Eeewwwwwww, don't call me that!” Amai looked genuinely surprised. “Aaah! I'm sorry!”

Kujou was looking back and forth as Amai and Michizoe were freaking out. She had a look of frustration. “Anyways… this was really dumb, wasn’t it? The Seerfile itself said that the cause of death was uuh, internal hemorrhaging. You guys do know what that means, right?”

Amaterasu cleared her throat. “In layman's terms, it basically means he bled out on the inside. And I don't think a scraped elbow is enough to kill a person.”

Kikuchi tilted her head. “But we don't know exactly when it was, right? Aha~ if only Shishido was still alive~” I craned my head to look at Kikuchi, who seemed to shrink. Was I really that scary when I was serious?

“Its not an exact time, but we do sort of know when. Shishido was apparently attacked when he was preparing food for our little party. Its extremely likely that this is when he was attacked and that bump got on his head.”

Kazehaya shrugged. “Makes sense.”

Otaka also started to think. “So, He was hit in the head, and then bled out?” I nodded before being interrupted. “Yeah, that's corre-”

“HOLD IT JUST A MINUTE”

Amai turned towards me, leaning back on his podium, back to everyone else. “That doesn’t make sense Waruki.”

I got caught off guard. “Wh-what? Have you been paying attention? Of course it does!”

Amai shook his head. “Sorry, I think that reasoning is kinda stupid.”

I was taken aback. “How?”

He scratched at his hair. “Well, Don't you think that it takes more than that to kill someone?” I started to see where Amai was going with this. “Just hitting someone like that isn’t going to kill him, and if it did it would be instant!”

I had my eyes shut, listening to his words before responding with my own. “Don’t get me wrong, Amai. I agree with you, You can't just hit someone in the head and expect them to die later.”

He nodded matter-of-factly. “That's right! I'm glad to have helped you! Don’t you see now that there is no way that's what killed him”

I shook my head. “No, we’ve all but confirmed that that's what killed him, there’s no other way it could have.”

Amai put his palm to his face. “You’re not making sense! There’s no way that Shishido would have bled out just from one bump! It would have healed over or been a much messier wound! Its impossible!”

I smiled a bit. I was taking way too much pleasure in this, wasn’t I? Scary. “No, there’s definitely a way, because there was something about Shishido that very few people knew about him.”

Yukimura questioned me. “Wh-what do you mean by th-that?” I tried to remember everything that I had been told.

“Shishido… had Type A Hemophilia if I remember correctly.

“Ehhhh?” Michizoe gasped. “Hemo-whats it?”

Homura nodded. “Hemophillia. He had wrote me a note about it, just like I had asked.”

Kazehaya looked over at Homura. “Note?”

Matsushita looked over. “Well, where’s the note now?” Homura looked away from the others with a mixture of dejection and embarrassment. “It… was stolen.”

Daishin looked surprised at this. “So all of the info on Hemophilia is just, gone?”

“Well… actually…” Ueno began. “Hemophilia… its… it makes it so its… harder for blood to clot…”

Amaterasu nodded. “Correct. Specifically, Type A means that he didn’t have enough clotting factor ei-”

Kikuchi interrupted her. “Oh my god who cares? Like, the point still stands, right? He bled out cause his condition caused him to bleed out!”

Kujou looked around a bit. “I uuh, think its a bit more uuh, complicated than that.”

Heisuke looked over at the Editor. “Oh yeah? Complicated in what way?”

Otaka tried his best to think, putting his forehead on the stand in front of him. “Well, he was clearly aware of his own condition, so… there was no way he would have just walked it off, right?”

I perked up as Otaka mentioned this. “You're right, he went to go get help, right Amaterasu?”

Amaterasu was silent for a couple of seconds before nodding. “Yes, He did come to the infirmary while I was watching it” She explained. “He also had a full plate of snack food, so I think its likely this was after his attack.”

Amai rolled his eyes. “Well I doubt you would go if you weren’t injured.”

Amaterasu just sat there with her mouth open for a few seconds. “...anyways... he definitely was in the Infirmary.”

Michizoe leaned out from her podium to get a better look at Amaterasu. “What was he doing?”

Amaterasu just shook her head. “Nothing bad, I uuh, I was kinda distracted, he let me have some of his snacks, but I know he wasn’t stealing anything, Homura told me in advance he was alright to be here because of his condition.”

Matsushita was running his hands through his hair. “But that doesn’t make any sense! Wouldn’t that have helped him? But instead of helping he ended up dead!”

“I think I can explain that, with a little help” I began. “Amaterasu, you were really angry about something in the Infirmary.”

Amaterasu seemed to tense up at this. “Oh, don't even get me started, ok? Do you know how da-”

Amai cut her off. “The point, please.”

Amaterasu coughed and nodded. “Right, so, in the bottle of Coagulants, those help blood to Clot, there were some blood thinners."

Everyone started to get a very sour look on their face as they pieced together what happened. “S-So… someone messed with th-the pill bottle Sh-Shishido used?” Yukimura stammered out.

Kazehaya nodded. “Seems like it.”

Michizoe started to get worked up over this development. “So that's why the Seerfile didn’t mention foreign substances!”

We could hear the Overseer giggling to himself. I turned around and watched him up on his throne. “That's right Little miss hiker! Medicine is one of the modern miracles of human advancement! Sometimes we need it to live! Ol’ Shishido sure did! Why degrade something so healing and medicinal like a blood thinner if it helps people? Ahaha! You know, I always thought that those kinds of things were supposed to help when you have a headache, boy was I sure wrong!”

Homura snapped back at The Overseer. “Shut up! You’re not helping!”

Heisuke giggled. “Actually, I think it was very helpful. I think he all but confirmed that it was blood thinners that killed the poor guy.”

The Overseer went silent, before the screen on his face turned off.

Daishin flashed a smile. “Haha! Seems like we have the upper hand now guys!”

Ueno looked around, rubbing his wrists. “We still… don't know much about… who killed him though… anyone could have just… swapped them…”

I shook my head at the dirty blonde “No, Ueno. I don't think just anyone would have been able to. Remember back to earlier, there were very certain rules had been put into place that prevented just this.”

“Oh yeah!” Kikuchi burst out. “Hey Homuraaaaaaaa, Do we still gotta follow those after this? I don't think they worked!”

Homura pulled the brim of her stetson over her eyes to avoid the gaze of Kikuchi. “Ill, think about it.”

Matsushita put his hands to his chin. “So, if the killer would have been caught by Amaterasu… then…”

Teruachi pointed his finger dramatically at me. “Then you, Takai Amaterasu, must be the killer!” Kazehaya, reached to her left and turned Teruachi’s arm to the correct direction. “Thanks brah.”

Amaterasu put her hands to her collar. “Y-you think i'm the killer?”

Kujou pulled out a notebook, reading over everything. “I mean, it would uuh, make the most sense, right? If the killer would have been seen by you to swap the pill bottles, and you were to supervise everyone who went in, then that makes you the only suspect for the killing.”

Amaterasu started to scratch at her neck. “I.. I didn’t kill him! I swear! I was at the Infirmary the entire time!”

Kikuchi started jumping in her spot. “Then how do you explain how they got switched?” S

he was looking back and forth. “I don't know! Nobody except Shishido really needed medication when I was on guard!”

Amai slammed his hands on his podium, nearly sending his paper hat flying. “Not good enough! You’re clearly the most suspicious one here!”

“Yeah!” Michizoe joined in. “There was no other time that the killer could have swapped them!”

“No.” I said, sternly. Perhaps it was seeing everyone start to gang up on Amaterasu, but I was a lot more stern than I thought I could ever be. “There definitely would have been a time. Remember the mess that was in the infirmary room?”

Homura started to get a bit more stern at the mention of the mess. “Yes, There was a large mess, There were pill bottles everywhere, so I had us all…!”

I nodded. “I'm glad that you can see where this is going. Who all was on the cleaning team again?”

Otaka raised his hand. “Ooh! I know! It was me, Ueno, Amaterasu, Homura, and Amai!”

Amai crossed his arms and nodded. “Yep, that's all who was there, He’s saying the truth.”

Ueno pushed his glasses up and shook his head. “That's… not really any good proof…”

Kazehaya agreed with him. “Its circumstantial.”

Daishin pulled his hoodie more over himself. “I see… Amaterasu was at the site too, so they could have just as easily switched the pill bottles during that too, correct?”

Kujou perked back up to Amaterasu and I’s defense. “Why would Amaterasu need to switch it then when they could do it earlier? I don't think that makes sense…”

Ueno disagreed with her. “It could just be to Its like I said… there’s nothing to prove her innocence… there’s no more evidence… Amaterasu is the killer…”

“That's where you’re wrong Ueno!” I shouted. I was getting heated again, I really need to stop doing this. “What about the glass shards that were found at the scene of the crime?”

Teruachi scratched at his head. “What do you mean by glass?”

Daishin seemed to remember what I was saying. “There were glass shards at the crime scene, but at the time, I didn’t realize what they came from, but now I have a pretty good idea…”

He turned to me as if to give me some kind of cue, but I just stood there in confusion in a couple seconds. Why would the glass shards be connected to the case? Suddenly, I had an epiphany as to everything. It was pieced together. “I know who the culprit is.” I said, scarily serious.

“Whaaaaaa?” Michizoe said, cocking her head to the side. “You do?”

I nodded. “Shishido had a bruised elbow, probably from attacking his attacker. There isn’t a lot that would cause glass when hit, but if someone did get hit, say, in the face, this would cause glass to break. More specifically, if someone’s glasses were hit. Ueno, you killed Shishido, didn’t you?”

Ueno lurched back. “Wh-What are you saying? I could n-never kill anyone…”

Yukimura seemed to move away from Ueno’s direction after my accusation. “Th-that isn’t a very c-convincing argument…”

Ueno turned towards Amaterasu, who was seated right beside him.

“How do… we know your g-goggles aren’t broken, like, f-from the inside… we c-can't really see anything through th-them…”

Amaterasu seemed to tense up some more. “I-i’d rather n-not take them off, thanks!”

Kikuchi scorned Amaterasu. “You have to! You do!”

Amaterasu sighed, shaking a little. “I mean… i-if you promise… n-not to look…”

Amaterasu reached up and took her goggles, moving them up onto her forehead. On her face was a large, what looked like a stitched up gash across cutting through her left eye, moving across the bridge of her nose and ducking below the right eye. She showed everyone her goggles, perfectly undamaged, and put them back on. “I hope that suffices…”

Ueno looked absolutely shook by the sight, and everyone else seemed to be having mixed emotions. He looked like he was about to blow, shifting his glasses more up his face. “That's a really flawed way of thinking, You have nothing on me, Nothing!”

At this outburst, there were some gasps from the crowd, others flinched. I stood my ground against him. “All of the evidence so far points towards you, there’s nothing else that would cause glass to be on the floor!”

He was starting to get more heated, but I couldn’t let my resolve be weakened. “Amaterasu is the most likely one to kill Shishido, not me! She was the one who swapped the pills, not me!”

I sighed. “Amaterasu’s reaction to the tampered pill bottles was very genuine, both me and Homura can attest to that.”

Ueno pushed his cape back, shouting at me. I was certain that he was the killer. “So what? Some glass? That's what you’re basing this on? Face it, there’s nothing you can do to incriminate me! I didn’t even know the bloke had Hemophilia!”

I shook my head. “No, Ueno, that's where you are wrong. You did know. I want you to empty your pockets now. You’re the one who stole the note from Homura, didn’t you?"

Ueno’s angry demeanor suddenly shrank. “Empty… my… pockets…?” He looked away from us all. “No, I don't want to. I plead the 5th.”

Teruachi protested. “Man, that's not like, legally binding in here!”

Ueno shook his head. “I still don't, this is entrapment. Just you putting together pieces that don't fit together.”

Kujou was the one who interrupted this time. “I respectfully disagree Ueno. I think Waruki knows exactly what happened.”

I nodded. “Yes, I'm positive now that the plot behind your murder is very clear. Everyone here knows it, so why don't you just accept it Ueno?”

Ueno dropped his timid persona once again to snap back at me. “I'll never accept this farce! You don’t know a thing!”

I could only shake my head at him. To keep up this fight til the end, it was almost heartbreaking to see. “Alright, ill make you accept it then. I'll make sure there’s nowhere left for you to hide!”

 

**“Heres everything that happened in this case!”**

 

_“The first thing that the killer did to kick off the murder was when Homura asked us all to write her a note if we needed to use anything in the infirmary. Shishido, needing to use the infirmary’s medication, wrote out to Homura his condition, Type A Hemophilia. Putting the note into her back pocket, she expected it to be safe. However, the killer had instead pickpocketed the note. Seeing an opportunity from the information gathered, the killer volunteered to help clean up the infirmary after its mess. However, when nobody was looking, the killer put some blood thinners into the bottle of coagulants. It is lucky that they did this, as it wasn’t until after cleanup that the infirmary became truly supervised._

 

_After doing this sabotage, the killer waited a while before putting the next part of their plan into place. Later that night, he cornered Shishido in the kitchen by sneaking up behind him, and pushing his head into the wall, taking care not to outright kill him. Unfortunately, what the killer did not expect was for Shishido to fight back, sending his elbow into the killer’s face, breaking the glass in his glasses. The killer fled the scene, and I can only assume returning to his room, hoping that his trap worked. Shishido, worried about how his head injury would affect him as well as already running late for the party, went to take a detour at the Infirmary._

 

 _Shishido arrived with the snacks at the infirmary. Amaterasu had been told by Homura that he was in the clear for being able to take some medication. Shishido must have downed some blood thinning pills by accident instead of coagulants caused by the killer’s tampering earlier. This is the reason that he was very unenergetic at the party. His head wound was already having a hard time healing due to his condition, but add the blood thinners to his injury, then it was practically a deathtrap for him. Shishido bled to death on the inside while Daishin and Michizoe were out trying to find something to assist him, leaving all of us with a nasty surprise when they got back._ _That is the truth behind Shishido’s murder, isn’t it, Super High School Level Survivalist, Naoki Ueno?” _

 

Ueno was shaking in his spot. Everyone seemed to be giving him a variety of looks, ranging from fear, to sorrow, to anger. Finally, he let out one very large breath, before straightening himself up. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a note, putting it on the edge of his trial stand. “That is, regrettably, correct.”

Nobody could say a thing, we were all speechless, but that silence was only able to be cut by The Overseer’s harsh, overly positive tone. “Well then! It seems like you’ve all come to a conclusion! Now then, you will notice that on the inside of your podiums are 15 buttons! Please press the one of the one you think is the killer!” I, after a second of hesitation, pressed the button for Ueno. After a couple of moments, The Overseer’s screen changed away from an eye to what looked like a virtual slot machine.

“The Votes are in! Time for the Verdict” The Overseer says cheerfully. It takes a bit of work, but if you look hard enough, you can see an image of everyone’s faces spinning by. After a couple seconds, the slots landed on Ueno’s face. “Congratulations! You’re absolutely correct! The killer of Katsu Shishido is none other than the SHSL Survivalist Naoki Ueno!

“Hey!” Shouted Amaterasu, who had slapped Ueno on the back of his head. “The fuck did you kill him for?”

Teruachi, who must have heard the sound of the impact, tried to get us to calm. “Look can we just, like, not fight, or something? Like, the last thing we need is to harsh the mellow any more man…”

Everyone was talking over one another, mostly directed at Ueno but some others were crying and holding themselves.

Ueno, despite being cornered, didn’t appear all that too concerned. “I…” His speech started to get people to calm down. “I… had to…”

Kikuchi guffawed at him. “Uh, No? You killed someone! You didn’t have to!”

Daishin agreed. “Yeah like, for all we know that 1 day thing was nothing more than a bluff you bought into.”

Ueno once again shook his head. “Of course I did, I didn’t want to take the chance, it is my job after all.”

I thought about it for a second. “Job… you mean your SHSL Talent?”

Ueno nodded. “That is correct. I am a survivalist, I survive any scenario that life throws at me, including this one.”

Heisuke spoke next, as nonchalant as Ueno was. “So, when you heard about the motive, you started planning your murder?”

Ueno shook his head. “Make no mistake, I was planning to kill the minute that robot explained the rules to us, this motive just… rushed me out the gates…”

Michizoe had tears in her eyes. “Uwaaah! How can you be so careless about lives like that!”

 Ueno leaned back on his podium, making sure none of us except maybe the people beside him could see his face. “Life is oftentimes a zero sum game… even now, the only way to survive and escape is to kill another. In the real world, Scientists will take credit away from others to get the glory, corporations will bankrupt or buy out small startups to increase their power, even in the old days tribes and villages will pillage and steal other rival, yet sometimes pacifist or harmless peoples so that they have the necessary resources to survive. You don't survive by being nice.”

Matsushita scratched his head. “Mmm, that's all well and good, but like, we’re pretty well off as a society, you don't gotta bring tribes and stuff into this… and like, none of us are scientists or businessmen... I think...”

Ueno turned back around to face us. “You only see whats on the outside, not the inner workings of society. The sooner you give in to the fact that your “peers” would put a knife through your back if it meant they could stay alive an extra hour in a crisis, the sooner you will truly learn how to survive anything”

"You..." Kikuchi pointed, accusatory. "You're sick, you know that?!"

He nods. "That is... what people have called me in the past. They all do. Behind my back, behind everyone's."

I shook my head. "You... you keep repeating yourself... so why... why would you..."

Ueno's expression darkened. "Its not like its the first time that I've killed before..."

The room went silent.

"Wh-what?!?!" Yukimura hid behind another person.

Ueno would no longer look any of us in the eye. "They were going to kill me, im sure of it. Always laughing... always clamming up when I came near... they hated me... I knew it. My survival instincts told me so." 

"Geez..." Heisuke rubbed the back of his neck. "You sound like some kinda paranoid delusional. You're sure they were going to kill you? Cause I have a hard time believing it..."

"Th-Thats not the point!" Matsushita shouted. 

"...You killed them, didn't you?" Kujou looked very serious. "I... heard about it... They thought it was a murderer... and you were the last survivor... but you...

”What?” I turned to her. “What are you talking about?”

“The... Camp Uekura Massacre.” She’s said. “You’ve all heard of it, right?”

”Eeewww!!” Kikuchi tamped her feet. “You’re the one that killed all those people? You’re disgusting!!!”

"Oh?" Ueno turned. "I see... so you've pieced it together... huh?" He shrugged. "There is going to come a day sooner than you expect, where you will understand my motives. You will understand the fear, the pain, the sheer hopelessness... you will understand it all."

The Overseer seemed to clap at Ueno’s “speech.” “Oh well done! Well said! You know, this could go a lot quicker if you were all as distrusting and antisocial as four eyes over there!” Ueno did not say a word, “Or, should I just call you two eyes now that your glasses got all messed up? I don't know, all I know is that i'm getting bored! You know, I half expected you all to beat him to death once he confessed, but I can see you’re all just being a bunch of pussies, so Ill have to take matters into my own hands!”

Kazehaya seemed surprised at this. “Eh?”

Homura, with a serious tone, probed The Overseer. “What do you mean by, ‘in your own hands’?”

The Overseer giggled, a box with a bright red button rose up in front of him. “Ueno likes to go on and on about the true nature of society, so lets show it to him! Murderers get their due punishment, that's how the "rules of society" he seems to get a boner over works!”

Ueno shut his eyes. “Punishment…? Ah, you are going to kill me, huh… very well…”

The Overseer laughed. “Now then, i’ve prepared a VERY special punishment for our SHSL Survivalist Naoki Ueno, so lets give it everything we’ve got! IIIIITS PUNISHMENT TIME!”

Ueno looked at us all. “Heed my words, this will not be the last time you are in this courtroom.” With one final sentence, The Overseer brought a large gavel down on the button, sending a chain to latch on to Ueno’s neck, and pull him away to his fate.

 

**NAOKI UENO HAS BEEN FOUND GUILTY**

**TIME FOR THE PUNISHMENT!**

_When we next saw Ueno_ _on the screen, he was in what looked like some kind of giant diorama of a forest. On the wall of the diorama was a cardboard sun attached to a stick. In an instant, it spun, revealling a cardboard moon. The entire set went dark, but moments later, the darkness was pierced by a raging fire. Ueno had created a fire bow and managed to start one. However, just as he stepped away to gather something, the cardboard sun came up again. As it did, a little counter appeared at the bottom left of the screen. “Day 1”_

 

**_“SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST! CAN HE MAKE IT TO DAY ONE MILLION?”_ **

 

_As what I could only assume the title of the execution faded out, the cardboard sun and moon at the top started to turn slowly. With every rotation, the counter at the bottom ticking up by one. Day and night the cycle went. With every day, Ueno would go foraging for berries or making some kind of hut. At night, the fire would come up. However, after 5 or so “days” A large overseer loomed over the diorama. “This is taking too long!” he beckoned. With one hand, the giant Overseer grabbed the moon, and turned it backwards to day. The counter at the bottom went back one. “Aha, look! I'm in control! Night, Day! Night… Day!” The overseer was quickly switching back and forth from night to day, causing an effect much like a strobe light. Ueno shielded his eye, falling to the ground at the large blinding lights. The Overseer looked down at Ueno. “Hey, there’s no time to be lounging around! Survival takes a lot! There’s so much to do and... “ The Overseer, with a large grunt, spun the sun wheel. “...SO LITTLE TIME TO DO IT!”_

 

_With bright flashing lights, day and night started to intertwine. Ueno managed to get up, but was writhing and screaming. The counter at the bottom was rising at an exponentially large rate. Ueno began to run to the side of the diorama and claw at its walls. After a minute, he started to have the body of a fully grown man. He grabbed a large branch and started trying to break a hole in the wall with it. After the branch snaps in two with the days keeping on increasing with breakneck speeds. Now Ueno has the body type of a late-middle aged man. He kept throwing his entire body into the wall, screaming as his body grew and contorted at the rapid rate it has been. With one final slam, he now had the body type of an elderly old man. Ueno fell to the floor, defeated. In an instant, his body had shriveled up and withered away to bone_

_Even further than that, the boney remains of Ueno rapidly decomposed into the ground. Finally, the day counter reached 1000000. A small jingle played from the screen as a red “Congratulations!” played. All of us were speechless, we didn’t fully comprehend the severity of what we were seeing. I knew it though, I knew in my heart that we just watched someone die. Naoki Ueno was dead._

 

The Overseer burst into applause. “Oh bravo! Bravo!” We all looked on in horror, the pitiful whines and screeches slowly starting to escape our mouths.

“What… What the FUCK was that??” shouted Amai, taking a step back.

Michizoe had her face in her hands, muffled sobs coming out from her. I watched two people die today. Katsu Shishido, the SHSL Caterer, and Naoki Ueno, the SHSL Survivalist. There were only 14 of us left. What were we going to do?

Homura was staring intensely at The Overseer. “I truly hope you don't think you can get away with this.”

The Overseer shook his head. “It would be cliche to say that I already have, so Ill throw you guys a bone. We haven’t done it yet, but we will. You don’t understand yet, but you are all very much important to us, and to the future.”

Yukimura stammered out a question in response to The Overseer’s vague speech. “Y-you say w-we… d-d-does that mean there are more of you?”

The Overseer let out a mechanical giggle. “Of course, I can't do this alone, one of you happens to be the one who is in control of me.”

The room fell silent. Someone in our class was the one behind The Overseer? I didn’t want to believe it, but it made sense, if you really thought about it. What better way to make sure that the game ran smoothly than to have an insider? The Overseer, as he said these words, fell back into the floor, his Throne quickly descending with him. We heard a click behind us, the door was open.

I left the Laboratory turned trial room and went not to my bed, but to the kitchen. Shishido was almost always seen here cooking for us, and now he was gone. It would be rude of me to just miss his skills and not the person as a whole, but the way he worked, he made his job into his life. Shishido met his fatal injury in this room. I couldn’t stomach to be here. It was late, the clock on the wall showed that we had been up almost all night. 5am was probably not a good time to be going to sleep, but everyone else was, so I didn’t even bother with my hunger. I went to my room and laid down in my bed. I was more thankful than ever that I had the luxury of closing my eyes and being able to open them again.  
****

**  
**

**[CHAPTER 1 END]** ****  
**[SURVIVING STUDENTS: 14]** **  
****[ >CONTINUE?]**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Were you right or wrong about who the killer was? Let me know! Also, feel free to suggest Characters you want Waruki to have Free Time Events with in Chapter 2!


	7. Chapter 2: Man Overboard (Daily Life Pt. 1)

**CHAPTER 2, MAN OVERBOARD: DAILY LIFE**

 

Nobody enjoyed the breakfast meeting the following morning of our first trial. There was still an air of emptiness as I woke up. 2 of our friends were killed within a single day, and yet the world keeps turning as if nothing happened. That feeling of emptiness must have washed over the entire facility. The halls were completely empty for a number of reasons.

  
Firstly, not a lot of people had gotten a lot of sleep, there must have been only 3 or 4 hours between the end of the trial and when the morning announcement played. Despite this, most of us stayed in bed another couple hours. Secondly, the fact that all 14 of us had watched someone die yesterday. The sight of him was still burned into the back of my mind as I make my way to the cafeteria. Naoki Ueno, he had murdered Shishido in cold blood, and didn’t even feel remorse. Should I forgive a person like that? My immediate gut reaction told me no, but then again, my gut also told me that nothing would go wrong. However, here we were. Some people didn’t even bother to show up for breakfast, leaving a lot more than just two empty seats in the cafeteria. A couple awkwardly shared glances were exchanged between all of us as we ate our food. Today’s menu? Bland Breakfast Cereal. I guess none of us really had the heart to do some in depth cooking after losing someone like Shishido. It was quite unnerving; aside from the clicks of metal spoon against porcelain bowl, the room was completely silent. Of course, such things don’t ever seem to last in this world, and The Overseer came back out.

“Hey there boys and girls! I’ve got a present for you!”

Almost Immediately, one of us piped up “You can keep it, we don't want it.”

However, The Overseer just shook its head. “Oh come now, I don’t want you all getting cabin fever, so as a reward for a successful trial, I’ve unlocked the building’s elevator! Floor 2 is now available to you!”

Kujou, from the other side of the room, perked up. “So you mean we have more places to explore?”

Kikuchi sighed. “I doubt there would be any kind of exit, so there’s really no reason to bother ourselves…”

Homura, standing leaned against the corner, spoke with a less harsh tone than I’d ever seen her speak in. “A Change of scenery is still good for the mind, god knows we’re going to need it…”

I decided to keep my mouth shut. I could tell that Homura was pretty shaken up over yesterday. Without saying a word, I went over to the doors and snuck out. I was good at solving a mystery, apparently, but I wasn’t good with emotional confrontation. There was an elevator at the end of the dormitory halls. I remember this door, it had been the one that Otaka had failed to open. However, when I approached it, a light shined up above After a couple moments and a nice ding, the door opened. While there were 6 buttons on the panel in front of me, only a button labeled “G” and one labeled “2” were lit up. I tried pressing other buttons for good measure, but with every press a small annoying buzzer sound would play. Finally, I decided to try pressing the second floor button, and i felt the elevator go up. However, when the door to the elevator opened, I saw nothing but fuchsia blood.

On the wall of the hallway it opened up to, there was large writing in blood, or at least I thought it was blood. There was a good chance that my unease was making me jump to the worse case scenario, but considering that our captors were willing to let people die, it wasn’t that far fetched. Along the walls, the words “I TWELFTH ENDER RID BROTHERLINESS.” In front of it, Heisuke, Kazehaya, and Matsushita were trying to make sense of it. I called out and Matsushita turned around to greet me.

“Waruki! Its good to see you’re up and about!” Matsushita grinned, but the other two didn’t seem as enthusiastic as he was.

“Aah, yeah, i'm fine.” I responded.

Heisuke gestured to the writing on the walls. “Any idea what this means?”

I read it over. It was quite strange, it didn’t seem like a full sentence, and I could have swore that whoever heard of this had never heard of a comma before. “Well…” I began. “Uuh, This Twelfth Ender person, could they be the mastermind? I mean, brotherliness can also mean togetherness, and ridding it is kind of their goal, so, maybe its an introduction?”

Heisuke nodded. “I agree, but I have another theory. Tell me Waruki, have you heard of an organization called the Black Kat Conglomerate?”

I stood back and nodded my head. “An organization of freelance criminals and mercenaries, willing to sell their services for the highest buyer, yeah…”

Matsushita and Kazehaya looked towards us surprised. “Aah! How do you guys know something so scary?”

Heisuke giggled almost pathetically, like he’s forcing himself to. “Ahah… They’ve been a huge thorn in my pop’s side… turns out that corporations are just as much of a target as any old rube willing to get mugged. Shitty world we live in huh?”

Matsushita nodded, before asking me how I knew. Truthfully, I had only been half guessing, but I did recognize the name. “I read a lot of newspapers, they don’t do a very good job of going incognito. Do you think this Twelfth Ender person is affiliated with them?”

Kujou agreed with me. “Yeah, it seems likely.”

I shouted as I darted around to my backside. “JESUS! Where did you come from?”

Kujou blushed. “Come on, Waruki, didn’t anyone teach you Uuh… how people are made?”

I scowled, but Kujou seemed to be having fun. “I uuh… came up the elevator and saw you four discussing this uuh… newest art installation?” Kujou pulled out her notebook and started to scribble some more. “Hmm…” she was thinking.

“What do you think of this?” I asked her.

“There's a chance that you're looking at this the wrong way…” she said, staring down at her notebook. She seemed to be trying to move the letters around, but to no avail.

Matsushita was looking up at the writing on the wall. “So, does this mean that this uuh… Black Kat thing isn’t involved?”

Heisuke shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. Its a bit of a stretch. I wouldn’t put it past them to do something like this.”

Kujou took a step closer to Heisuke, holding her pencil up. “You know… You seem to know a lot about them, is there something you aren’t telling us?”

Heisuke looked annoyed backing away. “Hey hey, don’t get any ideas, they’re ruining my dad’s life, and they’ve tried to ruin mine as well, I have a lot of experience with them, ok?”

I stepped in between then. “Or… we could not fight maybe?” I could see out of my peripheral that Kazehaya seemed a bit uncomfortable with the loud fighting, so I started to drag Kujou along with me. “Well, you guys can discuss this all you want, i'm going to explore this floor some more. You’re coming with me.” Kujou didn’t put up much of a fuss. As the others said their goodbye’s to me, I walked down the halls. As I was turning into the first room, Kujou kept walking, she seemed intent on something. “Just don’t go starting any more fights, alright?” Kujou just nodded and continued down the hall.

The first room that I entered was adorned in wood. There was a wooden floor, a wooden bar with bar stools, tables, and had this really cozy feeling. It was like I was suddenly thrown into an old western. Behind the bar was a sizable rack of drinks, as well as a white hatted ginger. He pulled a bottle out of the rack and turned towards me. “Ah! Another customer! What will I get you today, Lass?”

I just stood there. “Hello Amai.”

Amai looked discouraged, but Amaterasu giggled, swirling a glass of brandy. “Hey, don’t beat yourself up, it was a good shot, its not your fault Waruki doesn’t want to play along.”

I turned towards Amaterasu, who was still drinking some more wine. “No, its fine, its just, isn’t it illegal to drink at our age?”

Amai shrugged and poured himself a shot of Wine. I could tell this was his first time around alcohol. “Meh, murder’s illegal too, and that didn’t stop Ueno. Besides, after watching someone wither away, I could use the drink. I'm a bit of an alcohol aficionado, you see!” I had mentally jotted down that this was a bold faced lie, watching him try to fumble with the different drinks and types of glasses. He mixed together two random bottles and immediately spit it out as he held his throat. “Gaah! It burns!”

Amaterasu kept giggling at him. “You need some ice cream for that throat?” Amai layed face down on the table groaning. It was a little funny watching him fail, but I had also felt bad for him. I figured I would leave the two to their own ventures. I had bid both of them farewell before Amai came back to his senses and suckered me into one. I wasn’t the alcohol type, but if I had to deal with more death, that could always change. Nothing would ever get me to drink one of his custom mixed drinks though.

The next room that I came to was one that had a much nicer appearance. A Multi-coloured carpeted greeted me below my feet. The room was being surrounded by the beautiful sounds of singing. I stepped out of the small nook that held the doorway and looked over. Along the wall were instruments of all kinds, with a stage for people to play them on. On this stage sat Kikuchi, who was currently singing w slow paced yet emotional song. Daishin and Yukimura were sitting there quietly listening to the girl sing. were also there listening in on it. After the song, the two in the audience clapped as Kikuchi took a bow.

“Wow!” I began. “That was quite pretty!”

Yukimura nodded alongside as Daishin stood up clapping. Kikuchi took a bow and looked like she was taking in everyone’s approval. “Thank you! Thank you!”

I looked closer, and noticed her immediately exiting from stage. “Hey, Kikuchi, whats got you so flustered? Don’t you want to be on stage?”

Kikuchi didn’t bother looking at me. “Its fine, really, I just don’t really like to stay on stage much after a performance, you know?”

I supposed it made sense. I wasn’t Kikuchi, so I supposed she would know better than I did. I didn’t really try to psychoanalyze everyone I met, I was my own person after all. After the concert, the others started to prod around the edges of the room at the different instruments. I took one of the metal foldable chairs and sat down for a moment. There were all kinds of instruments, including some large scale ones on the stage, such as large drum sets and a grand piano. The sound of Daishin blowing loudly into a tuba and Yukimura screaming was my cue to leave. As much as I wanted to help with the situation, I had to focus on seeing if there was any way out.

After a little bit of walking, I came to a pair of double doors. Opening them, I was greeted with a very large room with glossy wooden floor. At the center was the emblem for Hope's Peak. I concluded from the basketball nets that were also here that this was some kind of Gym. Michizoe was currently running around in it letting off energy when she had noticed me.

“Aaaah! Good Morning Waruki!” I waved back at her as she ran over to me. “Look at how big this gym is!” I nodded.

“Yeah, its pretty large alright, it has been pretty cramped around here you know.”

Michizoe shook her head up and down, looking up at the baskets. “Hey hey! Where are all the balls do you think? There’s none here!”

I walked around the gym a bit. While there were some benches, I figured it would be a bit tough to throw those through the basketball nets. Near the entrance to the gym however was another door, a wooden one. Opening it up, we went inside to see Otaka at a weight machine. The room had a lot of weight machines on one side. On the other side of the room were some handheld weights on a series of hooks. To the side between then were some barrels of sports equipment.

Otaka looked up from the machine he was working on and greeted us. “Ah! Hello! Have you… maybe… come to work out with me? Its good to keep healthy you… know?” Michizoe bounced over to the machine he was at, agreeing and grabbing on to the handle connected to the pulley at the top. However, she could not lift the weights. I walked over to try, but both of us could only get the weights a couple centimeters off the grounds.

“Ghhhaaah!” I cried out. “Is this thing broken? Its not raising!”

Otaka chuckled. “No, you’re all just… uuh… more…” he struggled to find a right phrase as to not insult us. “Look, let me just help you, I had this so that it was a challenge for me, not you.” He bent down and took the pin out of the bottom weight, putting it up a couple so that we were only lifting 3 weights. “There! That should be much easier now!”

With a grunt, Michizoe managed to lift the blocks up, and then let them go with a powerful THWAP. It was quite loud, but neither of us really jumped all that much. I stepped up and tried lifting, having a bit easier time than her.

I giggled. “Heh, looks like I’ve got you beat, huh Michizoe?”

Michizoe grumbled. “You don’t need that much strength to climb mountains, you should see my thighs, they’re fucking ripped!”

I immediately turned around and walked out the door as quick as I could. “OK TOO MUCH INFO HAVE FUN WITH THAT YOU TWO GOODBYE” I could hear Michizoe giggling as I slammed the doors to the gym behind me and let out a sigh. I could feel my face heating up, was that an attempt at flirting? Was that just Michizoe just having no filter? I was not going back in there to figure it out. If Michizoe wanted to get together, then that could wait til after we got out of here.

After calming down a bit, I stood in front of the last door on the floor. This time I paid attention enough to look at the sign above the door. It had read “Art Room.” I had a pretty good feeling I knew who I would find in here. Before I opened the door however, I could hear more arguing. As I opened the door, I saw Homura, holding a large decorated knife away from Teruachi, who was trying to grab at it.

“Come on, Homura!” He cried. “I won’t kill anyone! I just want to carve the handle! Its so cool!” I had to admit, he was quite right. The blade was a deep blue, and the handle was expertly carved and decorated in a swirl, but with a couple of rough edges here and there.

“No, Its a dangerous weapon and it must be gotten rid of!” Homura snapped.

Teruachi lost track of Homura and started feeling for her. “There’s nowhere to put it anyways, just, trust me!”

I decided to cough before this escalated. “Ah, Hello Waruki, do you mind putting this somewhere safe?” She said quickly handing me the blade. Teruachi followed the sound of my cough, but I stepped out of the way.

“Uuh…” I didn’t know what to think. “Can’t we just, leave it? Like, its no different than the kitchen knives, and those are still there.”

Homura nodded, defeated. “Yeah… I… guess…” I couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty for Homura. I knew she was trying her best, but in a situation like this, she must be feeling helpless. I looked around the art room a bit more. It was pretty standard, with some canvases, easels, tables, and all sorts of art supplies, as well as a large bucket of clay to sculpt with. On the was a rack where I had placed the large knife back. Teruachi was too preoccupied with some clay to notice where it was though.

I walked up to Homura, who was heading out the door as I was turning around. “Hey” I called out. Homura had stopped outside the doors, we walked together around the new floors, but when I turned the corner, it had looped back to the elevator and the bloody writing on the wall. “Do… you know anything about… uuh…. What was it called?”

Homura seemed to know what I was talking about. “If this is about the Black Kat Conglomerate, then yes, I heard from the others.”

I understood, the others must have seemed certain that they were behind all this. “Do you think that they have something to do with this?”

Homura put her chin to her shoulder. “I’m not entirely sure, Obviously if they have they haven’t made themselves known, but I suppose its possible. We need more info… which is the problem. I think if we look around some more, we may be able to figure out why we are here…”

I looked down the hall. More people were heading into the elevator. “But like, I couldn’t find a way of escaping, right? Hell, we even woke up in these strange pods, how can we get out if we don't know how we got in?”

Homura thought some more. “We could only have been brought in and placed there, probably by wherever that elevator goes. If we can find a way to get it working again, then there’s a pretty good chance that we will be able to leave, don’t you think?”

I nodded. As I was nodding, Homura walked away, looking a little dejected. I had called out for her name and chased after her, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Hey hey, whats wrong?” Homura looked back at me. “Nothing, just, Ill be fine, please just don’t worry about me, alright?”

I shook my head. “Come on, you can tell me, ill listen!”

Homura just kept walking. “It should be me listening to the others, like a good leader.”

Aha, there was something I could prod at. “Like… a good leader? Is this about how you-”

Homura turned to look at me, looking visibly distressed. “I'm… Not a good leader, Waruki! It was because of me that Ueno got his hands on his note, it was because of me that Shishido is dead!”

I could see her starting to tear up a little bit. “Hey now… people like Ueno were going to kill anyways, and you were just thinking for the best of the group, right?”

Homura nodded. “Yeah… but it was all my fault for making the guarding, and for pushing everyone and-”

I cut her off this time. “Its ok, maybe you should tone down on the leader thing, but its ok to care for everyone, alright?”

Homura nodded tearfully. “I just… I care… a lot. I want this world to be a place everyone can feel safe and happy in, that's why I became a park ranger, to keep that peace, to make things good for people…”

I closed my eyes. I felt really bad for her. “but… its going to be alright, alright? We’re going to make it out of here, we’re not apathetic like Ueno, we won’t fall into that trap again.”

Without a second to waste, Homura latched on to me, hugging me. I felt happy about being able to help her through what she was doing. Our hug was ended by the sound of The Overseer’s voice coming up across the Intercom.

**Attention! It is now 11:00pm, thus, it is night time! If you need an excuse to go to bed, this is it! You might want to sleep with one eye open though~ Goodnight!**

  
“Ah, Waruki” She began. “I… Should let you go.” She let go of me. “I will talk to you tomorrow, ok? Tomorrow, we are going to get out of here. I Promise that we will do our best!”

With that, Homura left. Eventually, I too went to my room. While we were still trapped, I had a flame in my heart that night, was that what people called Hope? Despite seemingly hitting rock bottom, still believing in the best? That flame, the hearth that kept me warm all throughout the night, that was the key to escaping this place.


	8. Chapter 2: Man Overboard (Daily Life Pt. 2)

For the first time in awhile, I woke up with a pep to my step. I was feeling a bit better. No longer did I want to stay in my room, or think about what would happen if I just stayed in the shower the entire day. I put my clothes on and got out the door before anyone could come and drag me out of my room. I had a strong feeling about today, everything seems to have calmed down a lot more, and it would give us vital time together to make a plan as to escaping this place. I looked around as I left the door as I left, hearing a couple voices. A couple other people and I all made our way down the cafeteria, but my happiness seemed to be one of the outliers. While it wasn’t everybody, there were definitely sullen faces in the crowd trying to forget the dismal circumstances of their entrapment. The others had brought out their own breakfast, doing a multitude of different things. You could tell a lot about a person by what they chose for breakfast. Some people went through the effort of making themselves bacon, or eggs, or hashbrowns, nothing that could compare to the late Caterer, but still had some effort into it. Others had put no effort into their breakfast. Maybe they grabbed whatever from the fridge, maybe they just poured some cereal, maybe they weren’t really eating anything at all, I could tell that all of them were feeling really dreary from our situation. I myself decided to grab some juice and fruit. Sure that might have put me in the second category, but I wouldn’t say I was feeling really dreary, I just wasn’t all that good of a cook. One time in the past I had nearly burned our house down trying to make a fancy french style omelette. Cooking wasn’t for me, and Im not sure if it ever will be. I took my juice and fruit out with me on a tray that I had snagged from one of the cupboards.

I took a seat at one of the tables when I noticed that Homura wasn’t here. “Hey” I asked, not exactly fearing the worst but still being on edge. “Has anyone seen Homura?”

Teruachi tapped on the table to get my attention. “Man… When we went to try and wake her up, she like, said she didn’t want to come to breakfast. She wanted some time for herself.”

Kikuchi giggled to herself. “Hah… some leader she turned out to be!”

Heisuke shook his head at Kikuchi’s remark. “Eh, its not like Ueno wouldn’t have killed without her, dude was real fucked up in the head, all her rules did was make it harder for us at trial.”

Kujou disagreed. “However that may be, it also made it harder for Ueno, so he left enough clues for us to find it. I uuh… would argue that without her, we would all be dead…”

Matsushita looked worried. “But why would she need to keep some time for herself if its a good thing?”

Heisuke shrugged, getting up off of his chair and bringing his plate to the kitchen. “Some people take things differently.”

I piped up as others started to follow in Heisuke’s wake. “I think she just needs to take some time for herself, it seemed like she took both deaths pretty hard…”

Amai clapped his hands. “Ok then! So! Why don’t we dedicate this day to relaxing then? Its kinda depressing seeing all these sad faces, if we just mope around, we’re just doing what the overseer wants, right?”

Kazehaya nodded. “Y-yeah… re...lax…”

Instantly, Kazehaya left the room in a bit of a hurry. Yukimura spoke up as well. “Yeah… we’ve… all l-learned our… l-l-lesson… I feel…” Yukimura also left the cafeteria.

One by one, others left. Amongst them I left as well. Whenever I was stressed, I always liked to wash up a bit more and work on my hair. Returning to my room, I entered the backroom. A quick wash of my face and checking to see if my hair’s roots were coming in or not, and I was ready to go. I didn’t exactly want to spend the day moping around in my room though, so I exited.

I briefly wondered if I should visit Homura in her room, but if she wanted some time to herself, I should respect that. I stopped myself from knocking on her door, and turned around. I walked around figuring out where to go when I ended up in front of the lounge. This is where Shishido had died, I felt a lump forming in my throat. It was only a couple days ago that I had been talking to him and planning a party for the others, now he had passed on. Whats worse, is that he passed on right in front of me. His last words resonated in my head.

“Waruki, please… f’ me… f’ everyone here… find a way outta here… imma be… countin on ya’... to keep… them… safe…”

I had to hold back a tear. I hadn’t known him for very long, but he was always so nice to me. I felt as if going to a place like this, if only to honor his memory, would be a worthwhile venture. It was only right that I try and pay my respects here of all places, since we didn’t have any grave sites, so this would have to do. I opened the door to go inside and was greeted by Michizoe and Daishin having Castles and Catacombs open. It seemed they were having the same idea as me. They had the chair that Shishido had died in pulled over towards the table. I didn’t remember much from before Shishido died, but the fact that there were 4 sheets out, I imagined that the last one there was for me.

“Ah… Well isn’t this lucky, Waruki is here with us…” Daishin waved his hand to call me over. “I uuh… I don’t really know what to say, I think this is pretty self explanatory…”

I nodded and took a seat with my character sheet in front of me. Michizoe poked at her character pawn a bit. “Mmm… I guess… we’re never really going to go exploring with Shishido… huh?”

Daishin sighed, he tried to keep his smile up but didn’t really do a good job. He tugged at his sideburns a bit. “Yeah… but… that's ok… He’s here in spirit with us, right now, and that's whats important, right?”

I nodded. “Yeah… A shame too… exploring with him seemed like it would be fun…”

Michizoe poked my arm. “Aah, Did you like… like him?”

I shook my head. “What? No! He's already taken! Besides, I don't swing that way. Still though... he was nothing but polite to me…”

Daishin coughed. “Well, you can still come with us when we do come out of here!”

I nodded. “Yeah, you two do seem to be the type who like nature a lot, don’t you?”

Michizoe looked at me. “Do you not?”

I shrugged. “I mean, its cool, but… I… don’t know, maybe my talent involves nature?”

‘Oh, yeah, you don’t remember your talent, do you?” Michizoe asked.

“No. I don’t. I don’t know why though.”

Daishin giggled. “Maybe your talent is SHSL Amnesiac, A talent dedicated to not remembering, but, if you remembered, then you wouldn’t really be considered SHSL, huh?”

Michizoe giggled as well. “I don’t think that's a real talent!”

I just put my forehead onto the table. “I just don’t get why I would forget…”

Daishin put his hands to his chin. “Well, if we all lost memories, maybe it was just bad luck that you lost that as well?”

I nodded. “Yeaaaaaahhhh, that's probably it.”

Michizoe rubbed her hair. “But… I can remember mine fine, I’m a hiker!”

I looked over at Michizoe. “How does one even become an SHSL At that?”

Michizoe giggled. “I don’t like, climb snowy mountains, but I like to hike some! I spend almost all my time on the mountains doing the hardest trails at a record pace! It lets me get out all of my energy!”

I smiled. “That's good, it seems like you have quite a lot of it.”

Daishin seemed more at ease himself. “Well, As I said before, I got my start making CnC maps. But, then I started making real ones.”

I turned my head towards him. “But haven’t things already been mapped out?”

He snickered to himself, I slunk back in my chair. God, did I just embarrass myself? “Its not always about being the first to make a map, its sometimes about making a nice looking one. Anyone can draw lines, but I make my maps look nice.”

I pulled myself back up. “Doesn’t that take a lot of time though?”

Daishin nodded. “Lots, you get better though. Besides, its what I was meant to do, I guess.”

I looked at him a little weirdly. “You guess?” He shrugged at me. “I don’t know, I just, became a Cartographer, it just sorta happened, you know?”

I looked at him weirdly but, no matter. I decided not to press him on the matter. “It feels kinda weird, being the odd one out without a talent, though.”

Daishin handed me some dice. “Well, you and the other, what, 7 billion? I'm not entirely sure how we got so lucky, to be considered SHSL’s. You’re fine, just don’t let it get to your head, alright?"

I nodded. “Y-yeah… but i'm here with you, so I have to have some title… right?”

Michizoe piped in from across the table. “Unless you’re in the reserve course! That's always an option!”

I shook my head. “No, I specifically got a letter for something, besides, my parents aren’t THAT rich.”

We continued talking for a little while about the game and paid our respects to Shishido. Eventually, I exited. There was still a bit more time in the day, So I walked around some more until I reached the Bar. Not that I didn’t see others on my way, but they all seemed busy with any of the other things they did. I didn’t end up coming here for a drink, I just wanted to relax somewhere, and I had just came from the lounge. I could go to the cafeteria, but its blinding white colours always hurt my eyes a little. I did note the irony in saying that considering I had bleached my hair a pasty white. I pushed open the doors to the bar, However, as I entered the seemingly empty bar, that man appeared out from behind the counter slamming his hand down on the counter.

“Howdy there miss! What’ll it be today?”

I turned around and began to leave as Amai was holding his reddened hand, but he quickly ran out from behind the bar and tried to stop me. I wasn't having any of it though, and I think I managed to make it to outside the music room before he finally caught up. “Wait! Please! I just want someone to talk to!”

I stopped. “This better not be some kind of weird flirt think you're doing.” He shook his head. No, no, of course not! Just, Come on, Nobody’s really wanted to talk to me today.”

He followed me into the Music room. I was still slightly annoyed with him however. “You’re pretty outgoing, don’t you think that might push people away?”

He looked back at me. “Push people away? I don’t know what you mean.”

I looked away from him. “I mean… like, flirting with people recklessly is… kinda making them uncomfortable, you know?”

Amai looked a bit dejected. “Uncomfortable? But… I'm just trying to…”

I sighed. “Yes, I know, you want a girlfriend, but nows not the ti-”

“Waruki, with all due respects, i'm Gay.”

I looked back at him. “Wait… what?”

He nodded. “Yeah, like, i'm not really all that into girls, you know?”

I scratched my head. “Well, If you’re gay, then why are you hitting on all of the girls?”

Amai tugged on his bowtie. “I mean, girls like to be flattered, right? So-” I

shook my head in confusion. “What? No. Where did you learn that?”

He looked away from me shyly. “Uuh… I mean, that's how they do it on TV, right?”

I took a step closer to him, more worried. “No way… dude… Don’t tell me you got all of your social skills from T.V. Please.”

He looked back towards me, sitting down one one of the chairs, nearly falling over. I sat down too, the chairs were always quite low to the ground I found. “Yeah… Like, I never really was allowed to get out much, My parents wanted to keep me inside most of the time, they were quite scared for my safety, you know?”

I shifted myself in my seat. “Huh, there’s a lot out there, but that's a bit much, right? Surely there had to be something they were scared of.”

He tugged at his ponytail a bit. “I mean, I guess… but I don’t really like talking about it all too much.”

I looked back at him curiously. “Hm? What do you mean?”

He sighed. “Look, just, something happened to me when I was seven, I don’t like talking about it, ok?”

I leaned back in my seat. “Ok ok! Well, how about we talk about, how to actually act in public, ok?”

He nodded. “Yes, I would enjoy that quite a bit actually.”

I stuck up a finger. “One, there’s nothing wrong with confidence, but don’t be so sleazy about it, ok? Just focus on making friends, being yourself, you know.”

He looked at me a bit cynically. “Acting ‘myself’ has done the exact opposite of making myself friends, so while I appreciate it, I don’t think that will work.”

I scratched my head, frustrated. “Hmm, I'm… sorry to hear that… well… how about…-”  and with that, my words got cut off by another annoying voice.

**“Attention Participants! It is now 11pm! Not that I really restrict you, but if you’re a goody two shoes, time to go to bed! Goodnight!”**

“Ah!” Amai had stood up suddenly. “Yeah, I suppose I should be going to bed, huh? Gotta wake up bright and early for the daily races!”

I nodded. “Yeah, I should get some rest too.” Before that though, there was one person that I wanted to see. We both left the music room. A couple at a time, the people on the upper floor entered the elevator and went down. By the time I had reached the bottom, most of everyone had left for their dorms, save a couple of people who wanted some alone time having a snack in the cafeteria or reading quietly in the library.

I hesitantly walked down the door and reached one with a cute little pixel of Homura on the door. I knocked on the door with conviction, but I was still a little worried. Nobody had seen Homura since last night, and she hadn’t come out of her room at all today. When she opened her door, her usual Stetson was nowhere to be seen, and the ponytail she usually has done high into her hair was undone. “Ah, Waruki, did you come to see me?”

I felt my face heat up, I stammered out “N-No, I just came to ch-check up on you!”

Homura smiled back at me. “Well, i'm glad that you care about me enough, but i'm fine, I just had to keep to myself for a day. It seems you all were fine without me, so I think I am going to resign as group leader.”

I scratched my head. “Ah? Well, We all still like you, I think, there’s no need to go that far.”

Homura giggled at me. “Oh don’t worry, i'm not gonna become some NEET who stays in his or her room, I just wanted to be alone today, alright?”

I nodded my head. “Alright! Well uuh, Ill see you tomorrow then?”

She smiled at me warmly. “Yeah, tomorrow. See you then.” before shutting the door. I made my way back to my own room, washing up before getting into bed. I thought about the future as my eyes were going down. We were going to get out of here, but perhaps we had to change the way we would do that...  


**“Attention Participants! It is now 7am! Get up! I have an important announcement to make in the Laboratory!**  


I did not feel good waking up and hearing this announcement. The last time an announcement like this happened, it ended up with one of us dead. Was that The Overseer’s plan? To make us kill once again? Wasn’t once enough? I hastily got my clothes on and made my way to the laboratory where The Overseer, once again, sat in. This time, the room appeared to be mostly empty, except for a large monitor that was up above the overseer’s throne.

“Welcome back everybody!” its voice was still as shrill and annoying as ever. “You know, the first go around was so fun, that I thought we should do it again! Don’t worry! This time i'm giving you all the time in the world to kill! Instead, I would like to offer a _prize_ ”

The pit that lay in my stomach grew deeper and deeper as more words came out of the robot’s speakers. In an instant, he clapped his hands and the monitors and the figures of 14 people came up, chained to a wall. One of them in particular I recognized Immediately, one of my best friends from school, Ryohei Satou, sat there bruised up and coughing. From the looks of other people around me, they had people related to them as well. However, the Overseer’s voice only increased in volume as to drown out our panics.

“Well well well! I see you all recognize at least one of these people! Now, Here’s the kicker. 7 of these people are some you’ve learned to love, and 7 of these people are some you’ve come to hate and despise! Friends! Families! Lovers! Abusers! Murderers! Nemesi! Nemesi? or... Nemesises? Note to self… look up plural of Nemesis… ANYWAYS! I would like to direct your attention to this!”   
  
Out of the floor in front of The Overseer’s throne came two buttons, one labelled “SAVE” and one labelled “KILL”. There were more murmurs of the crowd as we saw these Two buttons. “Now then, anyone who kills and survives the trial gets the opportunity to press one of these buttons!”

We all stopped dead quiet. To either Save all of them… or to kill them. A Sickening lump began to form in my throat as The Overseer giggled menacingly at us. “Well then! Don’t worry, this time limit goes for as long as you like! Just remember, they are gonna stay there until one of you makes that critical decision! Well, if the killer messes up and gets caught, ill release them as well. Ah well! Try not to let the pressure get to your heads, alright? Alright! Bye now!”

I looked around at everybody, and they all seemed to be doing the same. This mess, this game that we had been thrown into, it was becoming more and more perilous. I clenched my fist. I didn’t want to have to go through that again, no matter what. I wasn’t going to let that happen, we were going to make it through this.


	9. Chapter 2: Man Overboard (Daily Life Pt. 3)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a warning. this chapter deals with some heavy stuff, so if you don't like necks or heads being hurt, then I'd be careful.

Silence, Dead silence filled the room after the reveal of the second motive. Thick, utterly despairing silence. There was no panic or chaos like last time, we all just exited the laboratory one by one. Some of the others stayed behind to look after the screen, long after The Overseer had descended into the floor. I, as much of the others, had returned to the Cafeteria. The thick haze of despair lingering over everyone else. Eventually, we all came to a seat. Amaterasu had gone through the trouble of getting us all some water to calm us down.

“So…” Kujou said, a little worryingly. “We should… probably tell eachother…”

Kikuchi looked a bit scared. “Tell eachother? Tell what?”

Homura looked a little worried as well, trying to calm Kikuchi down. “I think what Kujou means is if its someone we would kill or someone we would save…”

I thought about it a bit. “Yeah, I suppose that makes sense, we can’t trust eachother if we’re paranoid about what our friends would do to our own friends or enemies…”

Yukimura tried to speak up. “B-but… wh-wh-what if… it uuh… c-c-c-creates… a… d-d-division…”

Matsushita tried to think a bit more. “Ah, yeah, like, we wouldn’t want to have our little group split down the middle, that seems… a bit antagonistic…”

Teruachi scratched at his bandages. “Ah man, that's like, Devious dude! Its totally a catch 22! What can we do?”

Daishin tapped on the table. “Well, how about people who are comfortable saying, say it, and people who aren’t, don’t then?”

I nodded. Yeah, that seems like a good idea, uhm… I could go first if you all want?”

I took a deep breath in. “My old high school best friend, Ryohei Satou, he was up there, I wouldn’t want anything horrible to happen to him, but, I… would definitely save…” I tried to hold back my fear, knowing that some in this room could have the power to kill my best friend.

Heisuke cleared his throat next. “My brother’s up there, seemed pretty beaten up, shit sucks.”

Amai leaned in closer to him. “Hey, you never said if you would save or kill him…”

Heisuke kicked his feet up, keeping his chair on 4 feet this time. “We uuh… had a bit of a falling out, didn’t like how into Pole Vaulting I was, kinda split us up, it was pretty harsh…” He looked down towards his feet, a little bit solemn. “But like… even though I kinda hate him, I don’t know if I have it in me to kill my own brother, you know? We were kinda there together the entire time growing up, he was just a year younger than me. The little dude’s probably scared shitless. Anyways, that's all I really have to say, sorry for being so vague.”

He took a big gulp of his water. Otaka was up next, though he was looking a little worse for wear. For being so big and strong, he was practically crying.

Daishin called out for him. “Hey… big guy… whats up?”

Otaka wiped away some tears. “My… mother is there… she… she’s… I c-c-could never kill her! I'm… a-a-all she has left…”

Kujou blew out of her mouth a bit, scribbling down some more notes. “Whoa, uuh… that's a lot to take in with very little time… uuh… what do you m-mean by that?”  

I tried to step in. “Hey… what did we say earlier, he didn’t need to say if he wasn’t comfortable…”

Amaterasu nodded, but still gave her own opinion. “On the other hand, we’re all friends here, we can probably help him through it, I hate to see someone like that crying and bottling up his feelings…” I tried to argue against her, but before I could, Otaka interrupted me.

“My… s-sister… I… k-killed her…”

“It was… a couple years ago now… Me and my sister were really getting into tree climbing, we would climb… only the h-h-highest trees in the forest… and w-w-we would have a lot of fun with it… but… one day… w-w-we got… too confident… I convinced her to t-try to… climb this… kinda r-r-rotted away tree, and sh-she almost got to the top… but… Oh… oh god… the branch she was on, no, the entire tree… it a-a-all came… tumbling d-down…” He sniffled a bit, covering his face now, full on tears. “I just w-w-watched as she fell to the ground! I w-watched as that t-t-tree crushed her head, l-like a w-w-watermelon! And I… I didn’t… I…"

Without another word, he got up, knocking his chair over, running out of the cafeteria. We all stared at him in disbelief. “Uuh… I... “ Daishin tried to get some words out, but even he couldn’t find the right words for the situation.

“M-maybe…” Kikuchi thought out loud, “Th-this wasn’t the best idea… w-w-we should probably do this later… and see if someone would ch-check up on him…”

All of us seemed to agree, as we headed out of the cafeteria. As I was making my way to my own room, I could hear sobbing coming from inside Otaka’s dorm. I knocked on his door and tried to call for him, but he just kept sobbing, I felt really bad, but there was nothing I could do, it seemed. I returned to my bed and picked up a notebook. I never was a real good writer, but I did like to doodle sometimes. It kinda got boring after a while though, so I put it into my breast pocket and walked around some more, trying to figure out where to go. However, nobody really seemed to want to talk to me. I looked into the bar carefully, and thankfully Amai wasn’t there. Who was there however, was Kazehaya. She had a glass of something, and was sitting all by herself. I slowly walked in as to not startle her, and sat down next to her, grabbing a glass of water. She noticed me, and smiled a bit. She didn’t say anything however. We sat there for a bit, before she pointed to the notebook that was in my chest, and the pen I had. I had given it to her, and she scribbled something down quick. She showed the paper back to me. It had read [Hello Waruki.]

I waved back, and said hello. She seemed a bit happier and not on edge as she had usually been. She handed me another note. [I'm sorry for not talking so much, I just can't bring myself to speak in a situation like this.]

I patted her shoulder. “Its ok, Kazehaya, I understand, like, nerves and stuff, yeah?”

She nodded and handed me another note. [I have Selective Mutism. I literally cannot bring myself to speak, but I should be fine writing on this piece of paper.]

I nodded. Selective mutism, it made a lot of sense for how Kazehaya was speaking. ‘Well, like, is there anything I can do the help calm you down? I heard that sometimes drinks help with it.

Kazehaya shook her head, scribbling something else down. [I'm sorry, I can’t really have any alcohol at all, I'm quite the lightweight.]

I understood. “Its ok, i'm just glad I got to finally talk to you, you’re a pretty cool person. Kazehaya giggled a little bit before covering her mouth.

I looked over. “No-no! Its fine! You have a lovely voice! Trust me!”

Kazehaya looked around, before leaning in closer to me. “Y-you th-think so?”

Kazehaya quickly reeled back, before handing me another note. [I'm sorry, I can’t do this, would you be upset if I sticked to notes?]

I shook my head. “I don’t mind at all, whatever makes you comfortable, ok?” She smiled back at me. “I'm just glad I get to talk to you, it doesn’t seem like you get to talk to someone all that much.

Kazehaya looked a bit down at my comment. [No, I don’t really, the only time I used to talk to people was the bare minimum while driving my Taxi.]

I put my elbow on the bar. “That's really interesting, I thought Taxi Drivers had to like, talk quite a bit, yeah?”

She shook her head. [I can get pretty intense while driving, I just like bussing people around, being out on the road makes me at ease.]

I leaned over, “Yeah, you’re the SHSL Taxi Driver, so you must be pretty good, huh?”

She nodded. [I’ve got notoriety for being very timely and professional, I even have very important people take me specifically for their transport, like, CEO’s and Bigwigs.]

I sighed. “That must have been pretty stressful on you, but you’re still a very good driver, I wouldn’t mind taking a ride with you some day when we got out of here, just, for fun.”

Kazehaya slid me another note. [Maybe, though, I am really busy, a lot of people with a lot of places to go, you know? Its just driving day in day out.]

I felt a little more dejected, taking another drink of my water. “Yeah, I get you, I was probably really busy with my talent too… whatever it is.

I was slid another paper. [You will probably know soon enough, one way or another, I doubt its all that earth shattering though.]

I scowled a bit while still keeping a bit of a smile. “Come on, how exiting would it be if it turned out I was like, some SHSL Queen?”

Kazehaya smiled at me, grinning ear to ear. I looked up at the clock. “You’re going to tell me more about yourself some other time, ok? I'm gonna go try to check up on Otaka again, alright?” She smiled and waved as I got up and left her to herself in the bar.

Trying Otaka’s door again was no luck, however, I did notice that there was a strange lack of crying however. It was just stark silence. I called out to him.

“Hey, Otaka, are you in there?”

Nothing. I tried to jiggle the doorknob, but i forgot that the doors were always locked. I had a bad feeling, but there was nothing I could really do about it now. I turned away and went back towards the rest of the facility. I made my way to the cafeteria, where Matsushita and Yukimura were playing a card game.

“Hey!” I called out. “Can I watch?”

Matsushita waved me over. “Yeah! Yeah! Come on! There’s only one seat left too!”

I walked over. “Huh, that's strange, most of these tables have 4 chairs at them, so why does this one only have three?”

Yukimura shrugged. “It was… just like that when we g-g-got here…” I looked at the cards. “Where did you get these?” Matsushita pointed towards the door. “We found them in the lounge! There are a bunch of stuff if you get digging in there!”

Yukimura flicked his hand. “Hey! Someone died in there! Be more careful!”

Matsushita jumped at the flick, scattering half of his cards face up. Yukimura got a bit of a mischevious smile, though she tried to hide it.

“Aah, you sh-showed me your cards, i'm s-s-sorry… We sh-should p-play again…”

Matsushita gathered all of his cards up once again. “Do we have to? I'm just kind of like, burned out.”

He put all of the cards back into the box. “Aww… y-y-you’re no fun… it was… a g-g-good way to p-pass the time…” I knocked on the table.

“I hate to interrupt, but like, you both seem to be having so much fun, what are you really doing here though?”

Matushita just grinned at me. “We were just trying to kill time! I mean, its not like there’s much of anything else to do around here, aside from fiddling with the sinks in my room.”

I looked at him, shockingly. “The Overseer lets you do that? Don’t you like, need tools to?”

Matushita giggled again. “No no, I mean like, trying to inspect how well its laid out, I thought maybe it would give some vague clue on how we can get out of here…”

Yukimura interrupted him. “Y-you really… d-d-don’t know… much, huh?”

Matsushita snapped his head back towards Yukimura. “H-Hey! I am not dumb!”

Yukimura looked towards him. “I mean, you a-a-aren’t the sm-smartest…”

I turned towards Yukimura. “Hey! Be nice! That's kinda rude to say!” Y

ukimura just sort of scoffed at me. “I was j-just t-t-telling the t-truth…”

I spoke up, a bit louder now. “That was still-”

“Hey, its ok, Its not like she’s wrong.” Matsushita had interrupted me, putting his hand on my wrist. I resisted the urge to tug it away and just brought it back to me. “I mean, yeah, i'm not the smartest, but I still try my best, you know?”

Yukimura nodded, starting to sink back into her chair. “Yeah, i-i'm sorry, I d-d-didn’t mean to…”

I knocked on the table again. “Its ok, alright? Lets just, focus. Did you find anything?”

Matsushita pulled up his overalls. “Well, the pipes are well made, but they just sort of go into the walls. I couldn’t see if they were going anywhere, but there’s gotta be some piping network, right? Maybe underground?”

Yukimura thought a bit. “Probably where everything is stored in that l-l-laboratory…”

I scratched my head. “If we tried to jump down there though, we would probably get in trouble for trespassing or something."

Yukimura tugged on her hat. “Yeah… he s-s-seems to have e-eyes everywhere…”

I looked over at Yukimura. “You seem to be quite agile though, right? You need to be to be a skier, so you would be able to do it, if anyone.”

Yukimura hid her eyes behind her hat. “Ghhh… no… that's… not t-true… at a-a-all…”

Matsushita tried to give her some more encouragement. “Come on, you could do it!” Yukimura sunk even deeper into her seat. “I d-d-don’t wanna r-r-risk death…”

I coughed. “How about then… we change the subject… we’re all pretty stressed out it seems, but, was there anything you liked to do when you were at home?”

Yukimura thought. “My family… lived in the mountains, it made for s-some easy sk-skiing… but… only during the winter, and e-early spring I guess… We weren’t secluded, but I still sometimes hated all the t-tourists that would c-c-come around…”

Matsushita looked bright eyed. “Whoa, you got tourists where you lived! That's cool! My parents never really were able to afford to go places…”

I looked over at Matsushita. “Were your parents… uuh… Financially lacking?”

Matsushita giggled a bit. “Its ok Waruki, you can say poor, its fine, its just that they always seemed to never take care of themselves and instead took care of me. My dad’s plumbing company was going out of business, and my mom seemed to never be around to help me with like, homework and stuff… I ended up having to spend most of my time helping out my dad in the shop…”

Yukimura looked towards him. “Wow… that's a-a lot different than what I did… my life was… actually pretty easy… we weren’t like, corporation rich, but we were still pretty well off…”

I sighed. “Well, I guess we’re all equals here now, at least we’re being well taken care of. I have an actual bedroom instead of like, some dirty cell with wall shackles.”

Yukimura smiled a bit. “Yeah… I guess we sh-should… count our blessings…”

I looked around a bit, it was strangely quiet, except for a couple murmurs. “Hey uuh… have any of you seen Otaka lately, he seemed a little upset earlier…”

Yukimura shook her head. “A little is a b-b-bit of an understatement… he’s been l-locking himself in his r-r-room all day, I th-think…”

Matsushita looked a bit surprised. “Really? Cause I saw him near the elevators, but when I called out for him, he didn’t respond, so I just sort of, walked away and left him on his own.”

I put my fingers to my temples. “Man… i'm really worried about him… someone really should be checking up on him…”

Yukimura patted my back. “Its ok, like, I th-think we should just g-give him some space, you know? W-We’re all ” I

nodded. “Speaking of the motive… are you two holding up well?”

Matsushita rubbed the back of his neck. “I mean, yeah, Like, the person they gave me was just some business owner of a rival plumbing organization… I don’t think it would be... in my nature to kill anyways, I could never see myself doing something as horrible as that!”

Yukimura looked up towards him. “I mean… m-m-mine was just my old sk-ski instructor… but I haven’t s-s-seen him in a long time… its w-was a bit of a s-s-surprise… r-r-really…”

I nodded. “Well, i'm glad nobody is actually thinking about this whole killing thing.” Yukimura looked a little more scared. “But… h-h-how do you kn-know that? You d-don’t know, someone c-could be k-k-killing someone right now…”

The silence created by Yukimura’s words were very thick, but I had enough with silence for one day. I got up from the table and started to walk away. “I’m… g-going to go ch-check up on everyone, ok?”

Matsushita and Yukimura waved me goodbye as I walked away. I started with all of the doors, only one or two people answered me, so the rest must have been out exploring. I pressed the button to enter the elevator, and got in. Entering the Elevator with me was Teruachi. He turned towards what he thought was me.

“Hey like, have you seen that knife that I was working on?”

My heart skipped a beat. “Wh-What do you mean?”

We both stepped out on the second floor. “I mean like, I was working on that wicked cool knife, right? But like, last time I went to go get it, it was totally gone dude! I’ve been trying to look for it for a while, wanna help me find it? There’s like, not much I can do without sight, dude…”

aA much as I wanted to help Teruachi with his problem, I couldn’t help myself, and wanted to make sure everyone was safe first, especially with a missing knife in play. “I'm sorry, Ill help after, ok?”

He turned around, going back down the hall. “Ok, Whatever dude…”

 I walked around the entire first floor, doing a little headcount of everyone, making sure that everyone was safe, and that no bodies were able to be found. As I peered into the art room, I saw Homura there. She was looking all around the art room for the missing knife as well.

“Hey, Homura…” I asked. “Have you found anything… odd?”

Homura shook her head. “No, nothing that I can think of, at least… I can't imagine who would have taken that knife…”

I gulped. “Hey… Can you… come with me… I'm trying to make sure everyone is safe.”

Homura nodded. “With a missing knife, that is very important. Very well, lets go then.”

However, as we were exiting the Art Room, we saw Otaka, in tears, running out of the Gymnasium. I tried to run towards him, but he just ran away. “HEY! OTAKA! I yelled, but it was of no use, he was already long gone by the time I reached the gym doors. I looked inside. Nothing… but there was that one area…

Homura stepped in from behind me, taking the lead. “Come on Waruki, we have to see what made him… so upset…”

I could sense the fear in Homura’s voice, but I didn’t comment on it. We walked into the empty gymnasium, staring at the slightly open doors to the weight room. I put my hand on the handle, and took a deep breath. No way it was going to happen again, right? I wouldn’t believe it, I wouldn’t believe that someone would kill again, not unless I saw it with my own two eyes. In a fit of reckless abandon, I flung open the doors to the weight room… and… at the very back of the weight room...

 

** **

 

_DING DONG DING DONG! Attention participants! A Body Has Been Discovered! After 3 Hours of Investigation, We will be holding the Class Trial! Make sure to do your best!_

  
...saw it with my own two eyes I did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oops
> 
> This Body art was a collaboration! I did the line work while tumblr user @Spaceven did the colouring! Give him a visit, since he's a talented artist that im glad helped me out!


	10. Chapter 2: Man Overboard (Deadly Life)

A gross stench began to fill the room as I stared on in horror at the sight before me. Under all of the blocks of one of the weight machines near the back was the head of my friend, Yori Kazehaya. The SHSL Taxi Driver that only a could of hours earlier I talked to, was dead. I let out a heinous scream as I looked on. As I fell down behind me, I heard more and more people come in around me, their screams of horror and surprise ringing out around me. By the time I had managed to get to my feet, I counted 12 heads. Everyone but Otaka seemed to be here. Despite that, there were still 13 figures in the room. The Overseer was here as well, doing his usual spiel.

“Well well!” he began. “It looks like it has happened once again! One of you poor things have killed the mute. Such a shame, now she’ll never be able to talk with a head like that!”

Matsushita, with his eyes tearing up a little bit, started to talk back to The Overseer. “Th-That's horrible! H-How can you b-be so cruel!”

Kujou looked around the room a bit. “Hey uuh… is it ok to uuh… do this? I don't think uuh… everybody is here…”

The Overseer sighed, looking quite frustrated with his one robotic eye. “You know what? That's fine, dandy, just means that I have more work to do. I'm not upset or anything!”

Kikuchi pointed at The Overseer from the back. “You’re upset! Its so obvious!”

The Overseer craned his neck over to Kikuchi. “You. I don’t like you’re attitude. Of course, if it weren't for the laws of this land, I would have slaughtered you, so this is the next best thing!” The Overseer clapped his hands, giving what I could only assume was an internal migraine, like what had happened a couple days ago. She got up, shaken, and ran out of the room. Now there were 11 of us in here.

The Overseer sighed. “Look, now I’ve stepped in some blood. Gross. Im not in the mood for this, just, just fucking take it and go, I can’t be doing with this.”

With that, 2 cables hoisted himself up into the ceiling, leaving behind 11 of us, buzzing ID’s in all of our pockets. I took my ID out of my pocket, there was a second Seerfile for us to see. I clicked it on.

_The victim is Yori Kazehaya, the SHSL Taxi Driver. Estimated time of death is 9:35 in the Evening. The victim is found in the exercise room, under a weightlifting machine. The victim’s head has been caved in under the resistance blocks of the machine. Cause of Death is Exitotoxicity via a large destructive force to the head._

I looked around. Motioning Amaterasu towards me. She seemed to have a look on her face, as if she knew exactly what I was about the ask. "You're wondering what Exitotoxicity is, right?"

I nodded my head sharply. She put her hands to her head. "Im still in Med School, but, in laymans terms, her pain nerves were so overstimulated she sorta, died of shock. Even if she didn't though, her brain's pretty much gone. This was certain death. Does that work for you?"

I nodded again. "Thank you very much Amaterasu."

She shot a finger gun towards me. "Don't mention it."

 

[SEERFILE 2) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLET

 

I clicked it off. The sight was revolting, however, the fact of her death meant that someone had in fact murdered her. I had to find out who it was, I had to bring Kazehaya to justice. I held back my stomach as I looked away.

Homura patted me on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, ok? We’ll find who did this to her, that much is for sure, alright?”

From aside, Yukimura interjected. “Y-you know… its… r-r-really obvious… wh-who the killer is… I mean, just look at what sh-she’s under…” Yukimura pointed towards the weight blocks. 300 Kilograms must have been dropped onto her head, and enough to completely shatter everything. How absolutely revolting.

I looked at the weights. The pin was in fact set for 300 kilograms. "Hmm, You're right... I don't know if there's anyone else here who can lift that much... but..." I didn't want to believe it was Otaka. I had to be Impartial. "You just... keep thinking on it, ok Yukimura?"

 

[WEIGHT BLOCKS) HAVE BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS.

 

“Besides, d-d-don’t you think… th-this is… way too s-similar… to how h-his sister died…? Th-there’s a connection here!”

Yukimura tried to convince us further as Homura nodded. “Yukimura, I do believe you are correct in that there’s some kind of connection, however, may I remind you of last time about hasty judgements?”

Yukimura scoffed, walking away. “I'm just saying, th-that's a lot… to be a-a-able to lift…”

I turned away from watching her walk off. “Anyways, we should probably look around in here a bit more.”

I looked at the weight machine. The cord to it had been completely snapped in half. “Hey… where did the other end of the cord go?”

Homura called for me. “Over here.” I turned, and almost on the opposite side of the room was the weight rack, used to hold handheld dumbbells. The end of the weight machine was hanging off one of the hooks, its wire also cut. The plastic loop that you gripped to pull didn't seem the least bit damaged however. 

 

[BROKEN CORD) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS.

 

I looked at the hook that the handle was on. It was facing upwards and curved back slightly, so that the loop of the handle could be placed onto it. It was all very interesting. Near to it was a large knife. I had immediately recognized it as the knife that had gone missing from the art room a while ago, its extravagant design was impossible to mistake. It looked kinda worn out. I picked it up. I wondered why something like that would be in here.

 

[ART ROOM KNIFE) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS.

 

“Hey!” I called to Teruachi from across the room. “We found that knife!”

Teruachi made his way towards us, feeling along the walls. “Man, I was looking for that, thanks dude!” He took it from us, placing it in his jacket.

“Hey uuh… when… did you notice the knife missing anyways?” I asked him.

He scratched at his hair. “I don't know… like… when I felt for it and it wasn’t there? I'm not good with time dude…”

I nodded. “Ok… but… you were looking for it… right?”

He nodded. “Oh yeah! I asked Otaka for some help, and he helped me look for it for a bit, but then he had to go, that's when I bumped into you!” I smiled.

“Thank you Teruachi, that is a big help.”

  
[TERUACHI’S ACCOUNT) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

“What are you thinking now, Waruki?” Homura asked me.

“Well… i'm not sure, but I do have some ideas… we should… probably… go see her… huh?”

Homura nodded. “It's only right.”

I swallowed hard as we made our way towards Kazehaya’s body. The amount of blood and viscera around the weight machine made me quite queasy, but I managed to hold it in. I didn’t want to bear looking at the main injury, and with the cord to the machine snapped, I wouldn't have been able to lift it up anyways. Thus, I checked her body for other injuries that the SeerFile might not have mentioned. While I didn't find any other injuries, on her tie, there was this strange, greyish coloured spot that set it apart from the regular black and white ska tie. It made me curious. It felt slightly damp.

 

[TIE STAIN) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

I kept looking, anywhere but there, but there was nothing else of note that could have been reasonably counted as evidence. I got up from my spot. Anything that could have been counted as evidence under those weights could stay there for all I was concerned. I would leave the gruesome stuff to the ones who could actually handle it. I refused to look at something so gory. I turned around to leave, leaving Homura behind when I stepped and nearly slipped on a baseball bat. “Huh?” I looked towards my feet. There was sports supplies of all kind scattered around a barrel near to the entrance. The barrel was completely empty. I instinctively started picking up some of the supplies to see if any of them were roughed up or bloodied, but i didn't find anything. I wanted to put them all back, but now wasn’t the time to put away a mess, I had to bring Kazehaya to justice.

 

[EMPTY BARREL) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

Ignoring the barrel, I pushed my way out of the weight room to see Kikuchi, lying on the ground, curled up. I walked over to her, putting a hand on her shoulder.

She immediately snapped it away, getting up and looking at me. “What do you want?”

I backed up a little. “Hey hey, I was just making sure you were alright, what happened?”

She got up, sitting on her knees now. “I'm… sorry… just, can you just get out already? I really dont want to be bugged right now, thank you.”

I didn’t advance towards her, but I didn’t go away either. “Hey hey, no need to be snippy, i'm just trying to see if you’re alright, ok?”

I was already starting to get annoyed with Kikuchi, or perhaps that was me just being on edge from the body discovery. Kikuchi managed to get to her feet. “Yeah… that damn robot just zapped me with something… I dont really understand how its even able to do that but... ill be fine. Its not like we don't know who the culprit is…”

I raised an eyebrow at Kikuchi’s words. “What do you mean we already know the culprit?”

Kikuchi scoffed at me. “I mean, one look and its obvious that big oaf did it.”

I furrowed my brow. “You don’t know that for sure, you didn’t see him kill her, did you.”

Kikuchi flashed a sinister smile at me as I said those words. “No, Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut! I saw the next best thing. Listen well. I saw Otaka enter that room, and then a couple moments later, I saw him leave the room in a rush. That's the truth.”

 

[KIKUCHI’S ACCOUNT) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS.

 

“W-Wait…” I said. “Why didn’t you go in to see what was up if you thought it was so suspicious.”

Kikuchi looked nervous. “I… D-d-didn’t… want to… not by… myself at least…”

I smiled a little bit. “So you were scared?”

Kikuchi snapped back at me. “I was not scared! Who knows what was in there, I was NOT going in there myself. If I had seen that kind of sight, I would have fainted, and gotten blood all over my gown!”

I put my hands up in front of my chest and backed away a little bit. “Ok, ok, you weren’t scared, I get it. Is that all?”

Kikuchi walked over and sat down on one of the benches of the gymnasium. “Yes, that is all. Now, can you please leave? I need to be alone and _recuperate._ ”

I nodded at her as I left the Gymnasium. What a pain. I started to walk around the 2nd floor some more. There was plenty more that I wanted to check. The first stop I made was the Art room. I looked around some more, but nothing really caught my eye aside from the empty display case that once held the knife we found at the crime scene. Unfortunately, there weren't any locks on it that could have prevented this. It seems like The Overseer really wanted us to kill. I left, going next to the Music Room. I didn’t expect to find anything in here myself, but I wanted to be thorough. I looked around. I thought about how peaceful it was in here, with nobody performing. Something about the noise cancelling insulation making it extra quiet, i'm sure. I went to sit down on a seat but found myself making contact much earlier than I expected. I sat back up, looking at what I just sat on. It was the chair from the cafeteria that seemed to have gone missing from Yukimura and Matsushita's table. What was it doing in a place like this?

 

[CAFETERIA CHAIR) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

It was a stark difference in height, the cafeteria chairs and the chairs in the music room. I looked around some more and nothing really seemed to be out of place in the room. If anything, it looked a bit more messy, but that was likely because of people using it after it being unlocked and no foul debauchery. I left the music room feeling still a little bit on edge. The air of murder investigation was starting to get to me. There was just one more place to check on this floor it seemed. The bar. I hesitated as my hand hovered over the door. Did I really want to go in here? I had to, didn’t I? There could be clues in here, and if I truly wanted to bring Kazehaya’s killer to justice, I needed to do it. With a large breath in, I turned the handle and opened the door to the bar.

There was utter silence in the bar as well, almost peaceful. Most of everyone was either in the gym, looking at the body and broken cables, or somewhere to relax. I could still imagine in my mind the area that Kazehaya sat on the bar stool on the opposite side of the room. I took my time taking my steps there. I could see something over on top of the bar counter. I sped up and took a look at what it was. On the counter was a knocked over glass. I doubted that it was poison, so I took a little bit of a drink of it. As I thought, it was Alcohol.

 

[SPILLED DRINK) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

I put the drink down, and looked over the bottles some more, trying to find a drink that matched the colour of the drink. Eventually, I found some champagne, it had a distinct yellow-ish hue to it, and I was certain that this was the alcoholic drink that used to be in that spilled cup. I put it back up in its slot on the wall of drinks before turning back. Out of sight, behind the bar, there lay another cup, of similar hue. I took a sip out of it, but instead of champagne, it was just boring old apple juice. I set the drink back down behind the bar.

 

[APPLE JUICE) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

I walked back over to the front of the bar. Nothing else seemed to be amiss in here, but that didn’t stop me from poking around. Maybe it was to be thorough, maybe it was to procrastinate and get my mind off of mortality, but either way, I found myself poking in places that at the back of my head knew there wouldn’t be anything. Behind a jukebox, under tables, up in the (rather large) vents... but when my procrastination led me to the trash can, I found out something interesting. One of the notes was missing. The notes in the trash were from the conversation we had earlier today, but I /knew/ that one of them was missing. I tried to recall our conversation. I looked over the papers and remembered. The Paper that had read [I'm sorry, I can’t really have any alcohol at all. I'm kind of a Lightweight] wasn’t here. It was gone. Someone must have taken it.

 

[MISSING NOTE) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

The discovery of a new piece of evidence after a while of procrastination had spurred me to action. I felt myself rejuvenated. I walked out of the bar with a little more confidence in my steps. I made my way towards the elevator, glancing once again at the bloody writing on the walls. It didn’t have any relevance in this case, but it was still curious as to its true meaning. I didn’t have time to ponder such things now though, my destination was set to one place. Otaka’s room. I haven’t seen him at all during the entire investigation aside from when me an Homura saw him before discovering Kazehaya’s body. I made my way to his door, knocking on it lightly. I heard some shuffling from the other side before it peered open just a little bit.

“Hhh… I'm s-s-sorry… P-please… d-d-don’t be m-m-mad at me…”

I smiled calmingly at him. I wasn’t sure if he was the culprit or not, but scaring him even more than he already was wasn’t going to help any. “Do you mind if I come in, Otaka?”

Otaka stayed quiet for a couple moments, before motioning me in. However, as I opened the door, I heard a ringing up from above me. I looked up, and saw a small bell attached to the top of the door. It must have rang from the door moving so fast.

 

[DOOR BELL) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

“Huh… That's strange.” I looked up at the bell. It looked like it came from the music room. I reached up and grabbed it off the door. It was like one of those jingle bells. I put it back up, trying the door a couple more times to see how it worked. After I was satisfied, I finally let myself into my room. Otaka was there, on his bed, dejected and still trying to calm himself down. His large figure contrasting against the pain and suffering he was going through.

I patted him on the back. “Look, can you just, tell me whats wrong? What happened?”

Otaka looked uncomfortable. “I… I was… walking around… and when I went in the gym… K-Kazehaya was dead!”

I looked on, I didn’t want to press him too much, but I had a gut feeling about this. “Are you telling the truth, Otaka? You’ve been away all day, and suddenly you went straight to the crime scene?”

As I was saying this, I saw a crumpled note on the floor near the corner of Otaka’s bed. “Hey… Whats this?”

I went to go grab it but Otaka put his foot over it. “N-No! Y-y-you can’t read that!”

I started to get a bit more forceful with him. “Otaka. You are the prime suspect, and there is a missing note. If you have it, it doesn’t look good for you. Please, just-” And, cutting off my words was the intercom, buzzing to life again.

**“Hey Hey! I'm getting bored of waiting. Why don't you come on down to the Laboratory? Its time for the trial! Ill see you soon!”**

I looked back at Otaka, who seemed to be panicking. I blinked, and he was practically out the door, the jingle of the door bell following him. Luckily, he had seemed to forget the note he was standing on. Bracing myself for the worst if my theory was right, I picked up the piece of paper, uncrumpled it, and read it to myself.

[Otaka Mikio, Your sister died because of you, and its very likely that your inaction will cause the deaths of even more. If someone presses kill, that blood is on your hands. The only way to save everyone and to atone for your sins is to sacrifice yourself in the same way you killed your sister. There is a weight machine on the second floor, it is enough to smash someone’s head. I will leave you to make the decision to do the right thing. Do not let 14 people die.]

 

[CRUMPLED MESSAGE) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS.

 

I looked on in horror. This message was horrible! Trying to convince Otaka of something like this, I had a sickening feeling in my stomach about how Otaka must have reacted to this. I took it with me, putting it in my pocket. I didn't want to be too late for the trial, lest I get punished from the Overseer. I walked towards the Laboratory.

Once again, I seemed to be the last to arrive. The mood was thick. Some people were obviously trying to distance themselves from Otaka, while others were trying to comfort him. As soon as I got a good distance from the door, I could hear a loud clicking, signifying its lock. As always, the tubes that had once been in this room were replaced with trial stands, with one for me right in front of The Overseer’s throne.

This time though, the room was decorated with different kinds of traffic signs and steel bars that held the signs up. It reminded me of a kind of deep-city aesthetic that was very clearly trying to imitate Kazehaya’s talent of SHSL Taxi Driver. I took my podium. Two more stands now had been crossed out with their own effigies to the dead. Ueno’s picture was crossed out with an X made out of bones, while Kazehaya’s portrait was completely scribbled out, with an X drawn right in the center.

I took a deep breath. We had to bring Kazehaya’s killer to justice. Kazehaya was always quiet and distant from the rest of us, but she still tried her best to help, despite her condition. She legitimately wanted to be friends, and that wish to overcome her disability,

That was her hope;

and that same hope is whats going to get us through this trial. The hope that all of us could pull together and find Kazehaya’s killer. The hope that all of us could work together, 13 against 1. The hope that all of us would be able to survive another deadly class trial.


	11. Chapter 2: Man Overboard (Class Trial)

  **THE CLASS TRIAL FOR THE MURDER OF YORI KAZEHAYA IS NOW IN SESSION**

 

A deep breath in, a deep breath out. We were once again here in the class trial, trying to figure out who the culprit was. From behind me, The Overseer played the same rules tone as before. “Now then, allow me to begin with a simple explanation of the rules. So, your votes will determine the killer! If you vote for the person who killed Yori Kazehaya, then only they will be punished, and the rest of you can continue your entrapped lives. However, if you vote for the wrong one… I will punish everyone besides the blackened and the one who deceived you all will get to leave this place, as well as getting the luxury of deciding if the hostages live or die! Now then, lets begin.” I closed my eyes. Kazehaya… someone killed her, in an overly brutal and cruel manner. I was going to figure out who did it.

The first to speak up in this case was Matsushita, who still looked a tad shaken up from the gory scene of the crime. “So uuh… where do we begin first?

Kujou looked down at her notebook. “Well, we should probably start with leads, or… maybe evidence? Alibi’s? Uuhh… Help?” She looked towards the others. It seemed like she was so caught up in her own writings she doesn’t know what to do with herself.

Yukimura started to stammer out. “B-But… w-w-we already know… who the killer is, don’t we?”

Heisuke scoffed. “Come on, didn’t you learn from last time what that kind of mindset does?”

Yukimura lashed back. “B-But! W-we have more proof this time! Its t-t-totally Otaka! It h-has to be!”

Otaka was trying to defend himself, but he didn’t really seem all up to it. “H-hey… I n-n-never did a-a-anything! I never even was i-in that room!”

I shook my head. “But that's wrong, isn’t it Otaka? You’ve been there before, Kikuchi even saw you go in there.”

Otaka looked stunned. “I… I…” He was tearing up some more.

Homura knocked on her podium. “Alright, alright, we’re not voting now. I'm just putting that out there, we need to talk this through.”

Kikuchi rolled her eyes. “Yeah, but like, its pretty obvious what happened, he lifted up the blocks, dropped them on her, and killed her, yeah?”

Homura sighed. “Then I suppose you also have an explanation for the snapped cord, why she never screamed out, the reason there was a mess, the reason her shirt was stained, why the knife was there, but hey, that's just obvious, isn’t it?”

Kikuchi’s face turned pink as she slinked away as Homura continued. “Anyways, we should probably figure this out, shouldn’t we? We all think that its Otaka, right? And why would that be?”

“Hmm…” I thought about the answer to that for a little bit. “It would have to be the blocks, right? They were raised up quite high…”

Michizoe scratched her head. “But like… it was just 300 Kilograms, right? Its not that heavy, I mean is Otaka really the only one who would be able to lift that?”

Teruachi shouted out at Michizoe’s remark. “300 Kilograms is a lot more than you think it is!”

I nodded. “It was lifted high enough to completely crush Kazehaya’s head, so it wasn’t lifted up just a bit. I'm confident that… Otaka at the very least… lifted the blocks? Even if someone could lift it up a tiny bit, you would need to lift it quite high.”

I looked towards Homura for support, she just nodded at me. She was strange. I bet she could crack this whole case open in an instant, so why wasn’t she? Amai tapped me on the shoulder. “Hey, Waruki? Uuh, weren’t you just implying that it wasn’t him? What gives?”

I looked back towards him. “What do you mean by that?”

He shook his head. “I mean, it still points to him, right? If only he could lift the blocks, and he was there for the entire time, then he was the killer, right?”

“Actually…” I began. “There was one person who saw him, I believe, isn’t that right, Teruachi?”

Teruachi perked up as I mentioned his name. “Uuh… what? Oh! Yeah! The knife went missing!”

I shook my head. “No, that's not what I was talking about. I meant who you searched for it with.”

Teruachi scratched his head. “Yeah, Sorry dude, uuh… I entered the weight room and Otaka was there! He offered to help me though!”

Kikuchi scoffed. “Well, all that proves is that my words are correct, and that Otaka was there~”

Teruachi had a pondering look on his face. “I mean, maybe yeah, but, this was much before the body discovery, and like, I would have smelled some blood if she was already dead!”

Michizoe squirmed a bit in her seat. “Whats your point…?”

Teruachi turned towards Michizoe. “Well, we went looking, but that means… he has an alibi for the time the murder was taken place!”

The entire circle murmured amongst themselves. “Ghaaah, so, did Otaka set it up or not?” I heard Heisuke groan from beside me.

I turned towards him. “I still think that he set it up, but there’s something else here that proves that he isn’t the culprit.”

For the first time, I heard Otaka speak up on his own.

“A-another bit of proof?” I nodded.

“Yes, The cord for the weight machine.”

“The… Cord?” Matsushita thought. “Oh! I remember! It was cut and hung up!”

I shook my head. “No, Matsushita, I think you have the order of it wrong. It wasn’t cut, then hung up, in actuality, the culprit cut the cord after it had been pulled up, and hanging from the hook!”

Kikuchi looked puzzled. “But… aren’t those cords supposed to be strong?”

Daishin let out a pathetic “heh.” at Kikuchi’s words. “Have you seen this place? There’s like, hidden deathtraps everywhere! That robot wants us to kill, you know?”

The Overseer bellowed with a large laughter. “Keheheh! You’re absolutely right there, Dashing! That cord would never hold that much weight anyways! But, I just expected it to snap and scare someone, not to be cut! You truly are a creative bunch! I'm proud with how you’re turning out!”

I looked over towards the overseer. “Turning out? Whats that supposed to mean?”

But as I was saying that, his monitor turned off again.

Kujou sighed. “Well, I guess its confirmed that the cord was cut… but… with what?” I remembered the scene clearly in my head, there was only one thing there that could have been used.

“The Knife.” I said. “It had to have been the knife, it only makes sense, right?”

Teruachi popped up. “The knife? Aw man, you mean the knife I was looking for was like, in the killers possession the entire time?”

I nodded. “Yes, unfortunately. Why don’t we review? The blocks were raised up, and hung on the weight racks at the other side of the room. The cord was cut, and the blocks came crashing down, crushing Kazehaya’s head.”

Kujou nodded. “Yes, this is right, this is the only way that I can see this happening…”

Homura coughed a little. “You know… you’re forgetting something…”

I looked towards her. “Whats that?”

She scrunched her eyes inwards. “Otaka is still the only one who could have raised those blocks. That doesn’t make him clear.”

I shake my head. “Sorry, but if he really was, he could have just dropped them, instead of going through the trouble to cut it! It doesn’t make sense!”

Yukimura interjected. “Wh-what if he’s t-t-trying to t-throw us off the trail? I bet h-he would even say he d-didn’t do it? H-Huh? D-d-did you, or d-did you not?”

Otaka sniffled. Tears were rolling down his face. “I'm… I'm ready to admit.”

Everyone, including me, looked surprised. “Wait…” Amai began. “Admit? Are you saying you’re the one who did it?”

“Yeah!” Amaterasu shouted. “What gives?”

Otaka took a deep breath. “I am the one who raised the blocks, and hung them up. I also stole the knife, and brought it with me to cut the line.”

Heisuke laughed. “Hah! He admits it then! He’s the killer! I mean, there’s no other reason he would go through all that trouble!”

I felt the note in my pocket. I felt really guilty for bringing this up, but it was the only way we were going to get somewhere. “No Heisuke, that's wrong. There’s another reason he would have taken the knife and set the machine up like that.” I pulled out a crumpled up piece of paper. As soon as Otaka saw this, he began to crumple up into himself, sobbing a little more.

Heisuke reached for it and grabbed it out of my hands. “Hey… whats this, and why are you-” as soon as he saw the words on the note though, his face got pale. “Oh… Oh jesus fucking christ.”

He handed the note off to Yukimura, and so on and so forth around the circle until it got back to me. I began to explain. “That's right. Otaka was setting up for a death, but not the death of Kazehaya, he was trying to end his own life, in accordance to the words on this note. He wouldn’t be able to release the weights on his head if he was at the opposite end of the room, so he took the knife in order to cut it while he was lying down.”

Amaterasu stuck her tongue out. “Bluuuuuh, whoever wrote this must be sick!”

Kikuchi looked uncomfortable at the mention of the note. “That's… shit…”

All at once, the heated atmosphere of the court room took a cold turn.

All eyes were on Otaka as he sat there whimpering at his stand. “Its… e-e-exactly… a-a-as… W-Waruki says… I… god i'm so sorry!” He seems to sob some more.

Homura reached beside her and patted Otaka on the back. “Its ok, its ok… its not your fault, alright?”

I nodded. “The culprit is the one to blame here, not you, alright Otaka?” He still seemed a bit out of it, but wasn’t crying as much as he used to be.

I straightened up my posture. “Alright, now, does anyone here still believe that Otaka is the killer?” The room was silent. I nodded. “Alright, that takes care of that.”

Michzoe looked a little down. “Heeyyyy! But like, now that Otaka is cleared, we’re right back at square one! Where do we go from here? We now have no idea who the culprit is!”

Amai tugged on his ponytail. “Well, We would have to think, Otaka, set up that crime scene…”

Matsushita bit his thumbnail. “But was there anything about Kazehaya… that Otaka didn’t do?”

I suddenly remembered something. “Yes, in fact, there was something that Otaka didn’t do!”

Otaka looked at me, worriedly “S-something I didn’t do?”

I nodded. “There was this weird stain on Kazehaya’s chest, it looked like something was spilled there.”

Amai bit his thumbnail. “A Spill? I mean, couldn’t that have just been something that happened before the murder? I don’t really see how that's related…”

Kujou shook her head. “Maybe, but its uuh… important to be diligent, you know?”

Michizoe agreed. “Yeah! Like, it could be the most super important thing in this case and you wouldn’t know cause you’re trying to ignore it!”

Amai looked a little ashamed of himself, but Daishin took the attention off of him. “Alright, we’ll discuss the stain then, I guess, any idea where it could have come from?”

“Well…” I began. “There was a spilled drink in the bar, that was DEFINITELY not there before.”

Heisuke scratched his head. “Really? How… do you know that?”

I remembered the scene that me and Kazehaya were at, the bar. “I was there earlier… and there was no spillage.”

Daishin nodded.”Yeah, I was back there getting a drink earlier as well before we found her, and there was no spill, so it had to have been related to the case, right?”

Heisuke roughly placed his hands along the podium. “Yeah, alright, I see where this is going, but i'm still a bit confused about how this is relating. Something happened, but… what?”

“I believe Kazehaya passed out, or at least got drunk from drinking.” I said. “Me and Kazehaya had a conversation with each other earlier in the day, where she used writing to have a conversation with me, due to her Selective Mutism. On one of them, she mentioned not being able to have much alcohol, you know? But since then, its gone missing.”

Kikuchi scratched her head at me. “Is that it? There’s no real proof that there was alcohol involved though…”

I let out a deep breath. It was getting exhausting having to explain everything. “No, there was a full glass of juice behind the counter. This is only guesswork… but the killer probably swapped Kazehaya’s drink with alcohol when she wasn’t looking.”

Amaterasu shrugged. “I mean, its the only thing that makes sense, right? Does anyone else have any other ideas?”

Michizoe rose her hand above her head. “Oooh yes! I know! So like, if this note is missing, we should just, get everyone to empty their pockets and see who has the note!”

Amongst the murmurs of the room, nobody protested, so one by one we laid out everything. That was in our pockets. Amongst the ID Cards, Trinkets, and other personal items, nobody seems to have had the note.

Kikuchi smirked. “Heh, looks like someone learned their lesson from Ueno.”

Otaka snapped back at her. “Clearly not if th-they killed someone!” 

Kujou scratched her head. “Yeah… like, this ones even more planned than Ueno’s…”

Homura looked over at her. “Oh? What makes you say that? I think that it was impulsive, considering the amount of timing that would have to have gone into it to make things work out, It seems like is nearly impossible to plan.”

“No, this was definitely planned.” I explained to Homura. “They would have to have known when Otaka would have gone, since someone, presumably the killer, set up a bell above Otaka’s door.”

Teruachi looked surprised. “Oh! Yeah! The killer dude could totally like, hide and listen, that way they would like, know when the dude left without being at risk of being seen!”

Amai groaned. “Geeeeez, there’s a lot that went into this, wasn’t there? We have all of this, but we don’t even know who did it!”

Matsushita rubbed the back of his neck. “I mean… I hate to say it… but… he’s right… we don’t really have a lot to go on…”

Yukimura shrunk behind her podium. “I-is that it then? D-d-do we just gotta v-v-vote on s-someone random? Th-that's a 1/12 chance!”

Amaterasu turned towards Yukimura. “Oh yeah, that's real nice how you casually imply you aren’t the culprit.”

Homura slammed her hands onto her podium. “Enough! We’re going to get nowhere if we bicker!”

Heisuke looked on, annoyed at Homura. “Come on, even you have to admit the bind we’re in here. There’s nothing that can prove who got that bell.”

I coughed, rather loudly and obviously, to make sure that Heisuke could hear me from right next to me. “There is one thing that I noticed, is that one of the cafeteria chairs was there, in the music room as well.”

Kikuchi looked at me confused. “A chair? I always thought they were the same ones.”

I shook my head. “Nope, they are different.”

Matsushita waved around to get everyone's attention. “Yeah! I remember that! We noticed that there was a chair missing from the cafeteria, but we didn’t realize how important it was until now!”

Teruachi bit at his thumb. “Well… whats the difference anyways? They’re both metal chairs, right?”

I looked down to gather my thoughts. “Well, yes, but the cafeteria chairs are higher than the ones in the music room.”

Amaterasu sighed. “And… your point is?”

Michizoe tugged on her scarf. “Yeah! That doesn’t really tell us anything!”

Kujou slammed her book down. “Actually, I respectfully disagree, Michizoe. If you think about it, we were just told who the culprit was.”

Michizoe leaned back, aghast. “Whaaaaaat?”

I tried forming the ideas in my head. There was a bell taken from the room, and the chair, which was taller- no way. I looked up. “I see what she means. I know who the culprit is.” Everyone stared at me in anticipation. I eyed up everyone around the room before stopping at my target, pointing towards her. “Kikuchi, you’re the killer, aren’t you?”

Kikuchi looked towards me with a sense of bewilderment. “Excuse me?”

I nodded. “Yeah… I think you’re the killer, in my own personal opinion.”

Kikuchi cocked her head towards me. “But… that doesn’t make any sense! How do you go from there, to me?”

I sturdied up my posture. “Well, lets think about it. In order to get the bell, you would need to go to the Music Hall. It was quite high up too, wasn’t it?”

Kikuchi looked even more annoyed at me. “And…? Your point is?”

I laid out all my thoughts for everyone to hear. “Well, lets think. They were rather high up, and someone would need to be very tall in order to reach that without using a chair."

Kikuchi laughed rather nervously. I could tell that I was starting to get on the right track. “And? That makes me the killer? Am I suddenly the only one who could use a chair? That's ridiculous, get your head out of your ass!”

I shook my head. “You’re right, you aren’t the only one who could have used that, however, you’re forgetting a key detail.”

Kikuchi stammered back. “What? There’s nothing at all that could point to me, come on, Waruki.”

I shook my head. “Sorry, Kikuchi, you aren’t getting out of this one.”

Kujou looked up from her notebook. “How are you going to prove it, Waruki? There’s more to your theory, right?”

I nodded. “That's right, the important thing to remember here is that it wasn’t just any chair, it was the chair in the kitchen, which is higher than the ones in the music room… which means…”

Heisuke finished off my sentence. “Which means she would have to stand on that instead of the music chair ones to actually reach them, since she’s a bit of a shortstack.”

Kikuchi shouted at Heisuke. “I am not a shortstack!”

Homura shook her head. “You better start explaining yourself. Defend your innocence, not your height.”

Matsushita stared over at Kikuchi. “At this point… i'm starting to think that she can’t defend the first in any way…”

Kikuchi craned her head to look at Matsushita. “Hey! I'm plenty innocent! I have an alibi you know!”

Kujou looked concerned at her. “You can’t possibly be talking about that… are you?”

Kikuchi nodded. “Oh, I am. I saw Otaka enter that room you know! And then when I went in after Waruki and Homura, the body was there. So there’s no way it can be me!”

Otaka bit his thumb nervously. “I uuh… I… d-d-didn’t see anyone in there…”

Kikuchi put on her best smug face. “Well, that's all she wrote then. He didn’t see me, so I couldn’t have been there!”

I pressed my fingers to my temples, trying to think. I was certain Kikuchi was the culprit, but there had to be more. What… could it be? I tried to remember everything that was in the crime scene. Suddenly, I had the answer, but before I could say the answer, I needed to ask the question.

“Otaka, was that mess in there when you went with Teruachi?”

Otaka shook his head. “N-No… I didn’t make that…”

I smiled. “Then that's the answer to this incident. There is a place where she can hide. Inside the barrel.”

Kikuchi’s face looked dreadful as I said those words. “Whoa!” Michizoe cried out. “That must have hit the mark!”

I continued. “I didn’t realise it at first, but I don’t remember seeing Kikuchi in the gym as we were passing by… or anywhere in the hallway… do you Homura?”

Homura shook her head. “Then that means that the only place Kikuchi could have been… was in the crime scene itself.”

Kikuchi screeched out at us. “You’re wrong! You’re wrong! You’re making assumptions! I'm not the culprit! This is all circumstantial!”

I bowed my head. To see someone get this desperate, it kind of made me upset, but it was something I had to do. “Maybe, but together, this all points to one person. Allow me to show you the truth behind everything!”

 

 

**“Here’s everything that happened in this case!”**

 

_Ok, so, from what I can gather, This all started a little bit after the motive. The killer had placed a note under Otaka’s door, blaming the death of his sister on him. In the note, the real killer outlined the exact method that was used to kill Kazehaya, only, self inflicted, in order to mirror his sister’s death and push him further into doing it. After sliding the note in the door, the killer hung a bell from above the music room above Otaka’s door in order to gauge when he left, using a chair they had taken from the cafeteria. Reading this note, Otaka became overcome with grief, and set out to end his life. Otaka had gone to the art room and taken the Artisan Knife with him. Once he got to the Gym, Otaka got to work. He set the pin in order to raise up every single one of the blocks of the weightlifting machine. Taking the weights off of the hooks, he hooked the handle of the machine on the hook at the direct opposite side of the room, raising up the blocks._

 

 _At the same time as this was happening though, Teruachi was moving throughout the second floor, looking for the Artisan Knife that he was working on as he had noticed that it was nowhere to be found. When he got to the Gym and checked to see of his knife was anywhere there, he didn’t see Otaka’s setup due to his blindness. He asked Otaka for help with finding it, and Otaka obliged, thinking nobody would come in during the short time he was gone._ _While Otaka was distracted, the real killer got to work. The killer had earlier seen the note about Kazehaya’s problem with Alcohol and taken it, so now, all the killer had to do was take some alcohol and swap it with Kazehaya’s juice which she was drinking in the Bar. This caused her to become cripplingly drunk. The killer dragged Kazehaya through the bar, and into the Gym, as Otaka was nowhere to be found. They placed Kazehaya’s head under the blocks, and took the knife that was left behind to cut the blocks, as Kazehaya was too drunk to resist._

 

_As it was coming down, the killer must have noticed that Otaka was coming back to finish his work. To hide from everyone, they quickly emptied the supplies barrel and hid inside it for when Otaka came back. However, at seeing the horrific scene that the killer had left, he ran out of the room, screaming. After running out of the room, The killer waited to get out after people had arrived and pretend to just find the body. Normally your head would poke out, however, someone as small as the killer would have been able to hide inside it no problem! And that killer is the Super High School Level Musical Actress, Aika Kikuchi!_

 

Kikuchi grit her teeth through the entire ordeal as I continued to put the final nails in her coffin. She didn’t say a word until I was completely finished. It was at this point that she finally began to break. If she grit more, her teeth would have shattered completely. Tears began to roll down her eyes as she attempted to maintain her composure. Finally, she started to wail as she slammer her head down onto the podium. “I… I'm sorry… I'm… so sorry…” She attempted to try and get out in between sobs. “This… was a m-mistake… I n-never meant for this to happen…”

We were all silent as we watched Kikuchi break down. After a couple moments however, Amai piped up. “Wait, hold on, no! This was way too planned out to be a mistake, how the hell did you not mean for this to happen?”

Kikuchi looked up at Amai with her tearful face. “I… just… didn’t want anybody to fight about it… I w-wanted to frame for Kazehaya… on his suicide…”

Yukimura pulled her hat over her eyes. “But… i-if you did that… then…”

Kujou interrupted her. “Then nobody would be able to save, or kill. And you would probably be able to take the credit for solving it, correct?”

Teruachi pulled at his collar. “But like, there’s no guarantee what The Overseer would have done if you did that. He could have just killed them all!”

Kikuchi covered her ears. “I'm sorry i'm sorry! I just… I brought her there and didn’t see Otaka and I… I just panicked!”

Michizoe was getting just as worked up as Kikuchi was. “But why??? You could have just stopped it all! You could have saved two lives!”

Kikuchi looked down, with a more bitter look on her face. Daishin had a curious look on his face. “Hey, Kikuchi, who was your special person?”

Kikuchi’s face only began to grow more and more bitter. “That person… they… Don’t really like me. I'm lucky to still be alive! They tried to kill me! They keep trying to kill me! Killing her would have been an act of self defence!”

Homura tried to approach her. “Kikuchi, calm down, you don’t have to-”

Kikuchi snapped back at her. “Don’t lecture me! You don’t know what its like to not trust any food left out of sight for more than 10 seconds! You don’t know what its like to try and dodge sandbags and lights trying to drop on your head! Its not my fault that I’m an SHSL. Its not my fault that I always get the leads! What am I supposed to do, just stop trying at something i'm passionate about? That's not my problem, so why do I have to face the consequences? Its not fair!”

Otaka walked up to her and put a hand on her shoulder. His face was eerily calm and warm as he spoke in a comforting voice. “Its ok… I forgive you.”

Kikuchi lurched back and stared up at Otaka. “What? You forgive me? But why? I tried to frame you for murder!”

Otaka shook his head. “You shouldn’t take the blame for something such as this. If I hadn’t killed my sister, none of this would have happened.”

Matsushita tried to butt in between them but failed. “Hey… uuh… you know that thing, it wasn’t your fault right?”

Kikuchi’s tears rolled down her face as she continued to shout at Otaka “It was my fault! I'm sorry! Why won’t you let me have this? Why won’t you just let me die in peace?”

At the sounds of this, The Overseer lit back up. “Die in pieces you say, well, I can do my best with that!”

I felt a chill run down my spine as he spoke. “Wait! No! Not yet!”

The Overseer flashed a big red “NO” on his screen. “Sorry Wa-Wa, but there’s no breaks on this punishment train. I’ve prepared a very special punishment for our SHSL Musical Actress Aika Kikuchi. Lets give it everything we’ve got! Iiiiiiiits punishment time!”  

Kikuchi looked back at us one last time. “I'm sorry… please… don’t make the same mistakes I did…”

 

**AIKA KIKUCHI HAS BEEN FOUND GUILTY**

**TIME FOR THE PUNISHMENT!**

 

 

 

_When the monitor flickered to life, we saw Kikuchi, dressed up in a yellow school uniform, on a stage. The scene was rocking, but Kikuchi kept her footing. The spotlight was on her, and on stage she was surrounded by faceless figures. Her feet moved slightly to keep her balance on the rocking stage. Music began to play from a musical. Kikuchi clenched her eyes, and began to sing the song that she knew all too well. Rocking, rocking, and continuing to rock she moved her feet along with the stage in order to not fall over. Pressing on with the song, Kikuchi kept at it until, with a loud crash, the stage suddenly lurched forward, sending her and all of her co stars that were on stage flying towards the ground._

 

_**APRIL FOURTEENTH, NINETEEN TWELVE! CAN SHE SURVIVE ABOARD THE TINIEST LIFEBOAT?** _

 

_When Kikuchi came to, she heard the screams of the audience in the theater. The stage that she had once been on was slanted, and she saw that water was starting to fill the corner of the stage, rising at a steady pace. Despite her slipping and having a tough time escaping the water, she managed to reach the rest of the crowd’s evacuation, moving in alongside them. She managed to keep up as they all ran twisting through slanted hallway after slanted hallway, alarms going off throughout the building she was in._

 

_Eventually, She and the rest of the faceless crowd reached outside. It was there under the cold, cloudy night that she saw the true severity of her situation. She was on a world-class cruise liner, and they were going down. Lifeboat after Lifeboat were being taken by the passengers, but in a desperate bid to save herself and escape her own execution, she hopped onto one of the lifeboats just as it was dropping. It didn’t matter that it was over capacity, she had to live, she was going to live._

 

_With a sudden splash, the lifeboat hit the ocean. It was black, and stormy. It raged on as wave after wave hit the boat, sending it tossing and turning. The Cold, Clammy and Crowded group on the boat started looking around at each other, panic and desperation in their voices. The lifeboat was sinking, there were simply too many people in the boat. The group suddenly started to shove, trying their best to do anything to put some weight off of the boat. As a larger figure crashed into Kikuchi, she suddenly sunk low, hugging her knees in an attempt to futily hide. However, another figure rose out of the group, more prominent than the other._

 

_The figure began shouting, pointing towards Kikuchi. Tears rolled down her eyes as she backed away from the others. They all turned and stared at her, advancing towards her in lockstep. They grabbed her by the arms as she thrashed and fought against them. The crowd cheered as the others hoisted Kikuchi up and threw her right over the side. The freezing water hit Kikuchi like a ton of bricks, nearly paralyzing her, but leaving just enough reaction time for her to attempt to swim to the surface..._

 

 

 

_...Only to sink lower and lower into the dark ocean towards her true demise._

 

 

 

We all stared at the screen, and we all stared at eachother. Most of all though, we stared at Otaka. I walked over to him, putting my hand on his shoulder. He still stared at the monitor wide eyed.

“Hey… Otaka… why… did you say it wasn’t her fault?”

Otaka kept staring. “Hey? Can you hear me? Its-”

Otaka suddenly cut me off, his words hushed, but still spoken with force. “It… Wasn’t her fault. It was mine.”

A crowd was slowly forming around him. Amaterasu called out to him. “Hey! Its not your fault!”

Daishin agreed with Amaterasu. “Yeah… like, Its not your fault that she did what she did, you know?”

Otaka raised his voice at them. “No! You’re wrong! You’re all wrong! I tried to do it! I set it up! Its my fault! I'm the reason Kazehaya died! It should be me who should have been killed! Not Kikuchi!”

Heisuke pushed himself to the front of the crowd and tried talking to him. “Hey, don’t go overboard with this, ok man? Just, calm down, please?”

Otaka pushed him aside and marched straight to the Overseer. “I'm going to make this right, i'm going to atone for what i’ve done...”

The overseer turned back on in an instant and looked at him. “Hey! What are you doing? The rules clearly state- Urp!”

In a moment, Otaka grabbed and threw down the robot, and in the next, tons of tiny holes emerged from the floor as an alarm began to blare. It only took a second, we were all powerless to stop anything. In a matter of milliseconds, thin, metal spears shot out from the floor and speared Otaka through the legs, moving back into the floor just as quickly as they came out. Otaka quickly collapsed to the floor screaming as the rest of us pushed past to try and get to him.

During the commotion, we could all hear the Overseer boastfully laugh. “Ahahah! Oh man! That didn’t work out well for you, didn’t it big guy? You know, death is supposed to be a punishment! It has no bearing on you if you want it! Whats the point then? No, if you want to die, then i'm going to punish you by letting you live with the weight of your mistakes!”

I could hear Amaterasu barking orders and trying to use her mint sweater to bandage him as Homura turned towards The Overseer, tears in her eyes.

“You BASTARD! He’s gonna bleed out!”

The Overseer stroked the bottom of its monitor, as if you would stroke a chin. “Hmm, yes, you’re right. He is.”

Otaka continued to scream and write in pain on the ground through all of this, the others by his side shouting at The Overseer. “You want him to survive to think about what he’s done, but he’s gonna die anyways!” Shouted a really frantic Amai, trying to prop up Otaka’s legs.

The Overseer paused for a couple moments before a stretcher lowered from the ceiling. The Overseer walked forward and put Otaka on the stretcher. The shock of his injuries finally knocking Otaka out.

"I guess you're right. I suppose Ill fix him up, probably. Ill do the best I can. I mean, that dude got MESSED UP! Oh man!" 

The now unconscious Otaka was yanked away into the ceiling, leaving us alone, now 2 people gone from our group.

The Overseer stared us all down. “Well? Off you lot go. I have things to do, on top of caring to the Treeman as well. You all probably don't even know how much behind-the-scenes management goes into something like this. There’s something else that I really must take care of. So… Ciao for now!” We all stood silently, slowly shuffling our feet towards the door as The Overseer left the room.

The mood was tense. We had lost another 2 people today. Kazehaya, the silent but headstrong taxi driver, and Kikuchi, rude, but very emotional behind that rude exterior. Then there was Otaka, who injured himself and took the blame for Kikuchi’s misdeeds. I couldn't go to sleep knowing these had happened. I made my way back to the bar. The 10 others who remained went straight to their rooms. I was alone. I looked at the empty seat that Kazehaya once sat at. It made my heart heavy to think that someone like that had fallen prey to this game. A chill ran up my spine as I gazed into the empty space. I looked around, the feeling of being watched flowing over me. I looked up at the vents. Was there something in there? I took a sip of a drink I had poured for myself. I must have been starting to lose my senses. Seeing things that weren't there. I couldn't let my senses lose to this situation. I was going to escape no matter what, that promise to myself repeating like a mantra inside my head. I wasn’t going to lose.

  

**CHAPTER TWO, MAN OVERBOARD: END**

**SURVIVING STUDENTS: 12**

**> CONTINUE?**


	12. Chapter 3: A Strangers Shoes (Daily Life Pt. 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Its time to start Chapter 3! Thank you to all of my readers who have stuck with me so far. We're 1/3rd of the way through! And after this chapter's murder case, we'll be 1/2 of the way through! Isn't that exciting? I sure think it is! I can't express how grateful I am that people are reading this. Thank you all. I truly am grateful.

I looked down at the white haired girl sitting by herself at the bar. I had only recently infiltrated the facility, but even then I was too late. 4 senseless deaths so far… It sickened me. It sickened me how much senseless violence **they** would put their own classmates through. Sitting with them, pretending like they are their friend. Such two-faced betrayal… It fueled the rage inside me, and the determination to end this killing game. I could trust the white haired girl though, if worse comes to worse. I knew she wasn't the one who did this. I accidentally bumped my head. I ducked out of the way as the girl with white hair looked up at the vent I was hiding in. She reminded me of myself quite a bit. To think… someone like her… as much as I wanted to go down and tell her, there’s no guarantee what will happen. I only had one shot at this, and I wasn’t going to risk it. Even if she is my…

…

I backed up a little bit, being careful not to make a sound. I don’t think that the robot **they** created knows i'm here. Or if it does, can really do anything about me. After all, a sudden death or conflict would ruin the **results**. We both know this. I managed to wriggle my way out of the vent into a room. Nobody except one bedridden man was here, and he didn’t notice me. The others playing the game didn’t seem to come up here, so I had to assume it was locked. I walked over to the bed that the man was sitting in. He had dirty blonde hair, and blood soaked a blanket that was covering his legs. The beeping of a heart rate monitor matching my own; I couldn’t stay here for long. He was hurt, the robot hurt him. The Robot would no doubt be back soon, but I don’t want to see anyone else hurt. I didn’t want to see anyone else killed. I wasn’t playing this game, but I had a hand in creating this monster, so it was my own duty to use my hand to end it.

 

**CHAPTER 3: A STRANGER'S SHOES, DAILY LIFE**

 

In direct contrast to the last morning after one of those pitiful trials. I was awoken at much, much earlier than the morning announcement by a large and loud knocking at my door. It was pounding quite frantically, so I threw on something quickly so that I wouldn’t be flashing whoever was at my door. When I opened up the door, Amaterasu was there, pink from being out of breath. “Waruki… come on… We’re all seeing him!”

I put my hands up in front of me, trying to urge Amaterasu to slow down. “Alright, calm down, please... what do you mean by see him?”

Amaterasu nodded. “I went to check the new floor that was unlocked, and there was a Hospital. You can probably see where this is going.”

 I gulped. I remembered the horrific sight that we had all witnessed last night. Otaka’s legs getting punctured. He was no doubt in the hospital on the new floor of this facility. I moved along ahead while Amaterasu moved on to banging down the next door. I found myself having a bit more speed in my steps as I made my way towards the elevator. I truly did care about Otaka, and the Overseer did promise that he would live. To think Otaka would do something such as that just to try and atone… I couldn’t imagine what kind of anguish he was going through.

I pressed the button on the elevator to go up to the third floor. When I reached the first floor, I was greeted with two doors. There was a pair of metal doors, and a pair of sliding, glass doors. I walked up to the sliding doors, and noticed there was a counter on the side of the door. “Total Visitors today: 7” I took out my ID card and showed the reader it. As it beeped, the total number went up to 8. I could hear voices coming from a ways into the clean looking facility, so I took it to mean that it was there where Otaka laid. I entered the doors. I found myself in a reception room. There was a counter up front with a door behind it, and two hallways to each side. Heisuke and Yukimura were there in the lobby talking to each other. I could already tell that the mood was quite solemn.

“H-hey…” I tried to interject myself into their conversation.

“Hello again, Waruki.” Heisuke waved to me. He had pulled a couple chairs together to form some kind of makeshift couch for him to lounge on, while Yukimura sit up straight, hands in her lap.

“I-if you’re here to see O-Otaka… h-he’s in the room on the r-r-right…”

I nodded. “Thanks, Yukimura.”

Heisuke shook his head. “Man… why did he have to go and do something like that… he knows that the whole situation with Kikuchi wasn’t his fault…”

Yukimura sighed. “He thinks it is still… We have a c-couple people… in the room with him… in c-c-case he… t-tries again…”

My eyes widened. “Has he tried to do it again?

Heisuke shook his head. “No, He’s been asleep all day. Amaterasu says that its probably the ana… The aneh.. uuh… the painkillers.”

I smiled. “That's good, i'm glad Amaterasu has a handle on the situation.”

Heisuke pathetically giggled. “I wouldn’t count your chickens, Waruki.”

Yukimaru looked over in the direction of the room Otaka was staying in. “Sh-she’s been kind of in a bad mood all day…”

I got up from my seat. “A bad mood in what way?”

Yukimura looked down at her lap, trying to evade my eyes. “She’s been lashing out at people. I-its… k-kinda hard to take care of O-Otaka when she’s like that…”

I looked over. If Amaterasu was stressing herself out over Otaka, then I wouldn’t be ok with her doing all this. There were still 10 of us able bodied to help. She didn’t need to take all of the workload onto herself.

“Seeya.” I said swiftly to Heisuke and Yukimura. They both waved me off.

I made my way down to the Hospital room. The others were all there, either sitting on the floor outside or being in the room itself. I stepped into the room where Otaka lay. He was hooked up to all sorts of fancy hospital machines that I had no idea what did. There were murmurs all throughout the room but nobody really commented on my arrival. I stepped forward and put a hand on Otaka’s arm. He was still out cold, but death didn’t claim him yesterday.

Amaterasu was pacing back and forth in a small area beside the bed. She looked quite worked up. Had she gotten everyone, and then rushed back here? Amaterasu suddenly snapped up. “A cart. I need a cart.” Amaterasu harshly pointed towards me. “Get me a cart from the warehouse. Now!”

I protested against this sudden order but was just met with more “now’s.” I could tell that Amaterasu was pretty worked up, but I didn’t want to make the situation worse. I didn’t think there was a warehouse anywhere, but then I remembered the other doors. By the hospital. That must have been what Amaterasu was talking about.

The warehouse was large. There was lots of stuff in it. That doesn’t sound very descriptive, but its the only thing I can think of to describe it. There were tools and supplies of all kinds. I walked through it a little bit. I managed to find a cart that Amaterasu was looking for. I cleared off some of the excess supplies that were on it, but underneath everything there was a photograph. I bent down to pick it up.

On the photo, it looked like Shishido and Kazehaya were having some kind of conversation, while Ueno was accidentally caught in the frame. Both Shishido and Kazehaya seemed to be in some kind of school uniform. I stared at it with disbelief. This couldn’t be real… could it? This situation we found ourselves in was the first time we had all met each other I thought. So why did a photo like this exist? I put it in my pocket. I want to show everyone, but I don’t want to cause an uproar. If it truly was a mistake that it was here, then showing it off might get me in a lot of trouble. I haven’t forgotten The Overseer’s words, about how one of us was betraying the rest of the class. I just didn’t want to think about the fact that someone here could be like that. I pushed the metal cart out of the warehouse and back into the hospital, raising the number of visitors by one, once again.

I pushed the cart into the hospital room and I was greeted by a still rather agitated Amaterasu. She started putting things like tissue boxes and bowls of fruit gelatin on the tray. By now, some of us had started to wander out of the room and were looking around the entire floor. I suppose sitting around and supporting Otaka became too tiring. For now, Amaterasu just kept preparing other things for Otaka’s awakening. I let myself step out of the room when I heard sounds coming from the other room. I made my way over to the other hospital room to see a crowd of 4 or 5 people around a back wall. Now obviously this many people wouldn’t be staring at a blank wall unless there was an actual problem with all of their mental states. Of course, it wasn’t a blank wall, instead, there was a rather large crack in the wall.

I saw Amai trying to see through the crack. “No… I don’t see anything…”

Michizoe tried to look overtop of his back. “You sure? There has to be some reason this crack is here, right?”

I managed to make my way into the middle of the crowd. “Hey Hey, what is this doing here?”

Yukimura turned towards me from the corner of the room. “We think… i-i-its suspicious… th-this place is really serene… so… h-h-having a c-c-crack here is… r-r-really suspicious…”

I peeked into the hole as well. It was quite a deep crack. If there wasn’t something on the other side, then it was a rather thick wall. “Hmm… maybe there is some kind of room on the other side?”

Matsushita laid down on the bed in the room. “That robot isn’t uuh… trying to stop us… so it can’t be that important… can it?”

Michizoe started to get more excited. “Maybe its a puzzle! Maybe we were supposed to find it!”

Daishin pushed through the crowd with what looked like an ice pick. “Well, we’re going to find out. I found this in the Warehouse, so I figured it was a sign to be used!”

We all crowded around Daishin as he took aim. What was supposed to happen was that Daishin was supposed to hit the pick against the wall and chip it away to reveal what was behind it. What actually happened was that it caused the tip to break off and go straight into Daishin’s hand, followed by the crisp sounds of “Fucking Shit!” being shouted out of his mouth. It wasn’t often that you heard Daishin swear, but evidently sharp objects puncturing his flesh did the job. Everybody began to start freaking out, as they rightfully should. I and a few others led Daishin out of the room. Amai pointed out that there was a sink in the back room behind the reception. It seemed to be some kind of changing room for nurses to change in and out of their hospital scrubs. There was a closet, some benches, and a sink. When we tried to turn on the sink though, it only sprayed out at us, adding to the chaos. I needed to ask Matsushita to take care of this later.  
  
The next thing that happened was Amaterasu bursting through the door. Someone must have gotten her to get help. It was already a stressful situation as is with Otaka being hurt, but seeing Daishin like this must have pushed her over the edge. She shoved past us straight to Daishin and slapped him straight across the face, calling him a “Dickheaded Imbecile” before storming out of the room, hand still bleeding. Against my better judgement, I decided that I was going to try and follow her and see if there was any way that I could calm her down.

I saw her in the elevator room, between the entrance to the hospital, and the warehouse. I saw her sit pull a metal flask out of her sweater and open it up. I could recognize the smell anywhere, it was definitely alcohol. She started to drink when I walked up to her.

“Christ, its been far too long since I had a drink” she said, taking another gulp. She was quaffing the drink way too fiercely for just any person who drinks.  
  
“Amaterasu, are you fine? Are you thirsty or something?”  
  
“Not in the mood right now, Waruki. I need my fix, ill talk after.” She responded, taking another gulp out of her flask.  
  
“Amaterasu… do you have an alcohol problem?” I asked her.

“Oh piss off” she said, sending knives through my spine with her glare. “I can stop anytime, but as long as the world remains fucked, the bottoms keep going up. Maybe the world should change, not me.”

“No, you aren’t doing this.” I said as I tried to take the flask away from her forcefully but she just shoved me away and cursed at me. I backed off, as today had already been chaotic, and I wasn’t going to start a catfight. “Amaterasu!” I shouted. “That isn’t healthy at all. You’re gonna kill your body with all that crap!”

Amaterasu sighed. “You wouldn’t understand, Waruki. You don’t have to deal with the agitation, the dizziness, the waking up every morning feeling sick to your stomach…”

I sat down next to Amaterasu, a couple feet away from her. “Well, yeah… but that doesn’t mean its impossible for you… we can support you, and help you you know…”

Amaterasu laughed. “Damn, that's some real hope-filled sappy shit you just said there.” She just shook her head. “Maybe if the situation were any different, I’d be glad to have your guys’ help… but in a situation like this, I need to take the steps to be on my toes. Don’t think I haven’t tried quitting… I have, really… but… I can’t quit… not yet… if I do, it will make me an easy target while i'm weak…”

I felt really bad for Amaterasu. I could tell that her problem was really eating her from the inside, but at the same time I couldn’t think of any way to reasonably help her at a time like this. “Well…” I began, “We can still help you like, get your temper under control… I mean, You kinda freaked out at Daishin back there…”

Amaterasu put her hands in her face. “God… I did, didn’t I?” She sighed into her hands. “I still need to go back to him and apologize to him… that was a really shitty thing for me to do…”

It really was, but sometimes just saying the truth does more harm than good. I patted Amaterasu on the back. “Well… Daishin seems like a really chill guy… so i'm sure he will forgive you, right?

Besides, he probably has other things on his ha- uuh… has some other things to worry about right now.”

Amaterasu nodded. “Yeah… and… I don’t really want to leave Otaka alone for long… I just…” Amaterasu put her flask back in her sweater. “Yeah… Ill go check up on him after i'm done preparing… thanks…” Amaterasu re-entered the hospital, with me trailing not far behind her.

I could see Daishin sitting on the bed of the other medical room, so I decided that I would pay him a visit. His wound was all bandaged up, but there was still some pink soaking through the bandages.

“Hey hey.” I called out to him.

He raised up his bandaged hand in order to wave back to me. “Waruki! Hello! Good to see you’re doing good, I could use a hand with a couple things, aha…” I was glad that he wasn’t afraid to make bad hand jokes in light of his recent injury.

He looked away slightly before looking back up at me. I took a closer look at his bandaged hand. “Geez… are you alright? You got your hand pretty badly back there.”

Daishin nodded. “Yeah, its fine, I don’t really care all that much, if I have to be honest.”

I furrowed my brow a little bit. “Don't care? Come on man, you should still try to be more careful. We all care about your health, even if you don’t seem to.”

Daishin put his hands up in front of him defensively. “Hey hey, don’t go painting an image of me like that, i'm not gonna go stabbing myself again just for the fun of it, i'm just saying like, if me getting hurt is what this world wanted, then not much I can do to change that. Its just fate, you know.”

I looked at him a little more puzzledly. “What do you mean by ‘what the world wanted?” I asked.

He seemed quite chipper, even if he was still hurting. “Well like, I tend to just go with what the world wants for me, you know? Its that same kind of fate that made me become the world's best Cartographer. I let the wind take me, and it took me to Cartography. It just sorta, happened. So like, even with its ups and down, fate seems to take care of me, so i try not to mess with it too much.”

To me, it seemed almost lazy, how Daishin didn’t care about his future or much about anything, but at the same time I admired how well he was taking the entire situation we were in. 4 were dead, and one was mortally injured, and yet he could still face the day with a smile. I wish I had that kind of resolve. “What about other people though… You still went to go and try to help Shishido before his death…”

Daishin looked at me a little cross. I don’t think I should have said that. “Waruki… that's a little rude of you… I believe in fate, but that doesn’t make me a horrible person. Of course i'm going to help someone hurt, what kind of person do you take me for?”

I started to panic. I didn’t want to paint the picture of myself in him that i'm some kind of assuming asshole. “I'm sorry! I'm just really uuh...  interested in your whole philosophy of life… it seems very laid back.”

Daishin giggled. “Haha… well… you would be right. If I had a boat, i'm the type that would just stock up and let the currents take me wherever, you know? Seems fun, I’d just have to be careful not to run out of supplies.” I looked at him a little worriedly. I was starting to get afraid of his laid back attitude getting in the way of common sense. I was going to comment more about his philosophy, but I was interrupted by Amaterasu shouting at us to come to the first room.

“Hey hey!” She shouted towards everyone in the hospital. “He’s finally waking up!” I could feel my heartrate rise at the thought of Otaka waking up, at the thought of seeing the proof of him living through his injuries. The rest of us in the hospital and I piled into the room, crowded over Otaka. It was rather crowded, but it was worth it to see him ok. Finally, we started to see his eyes flutter open.

“Eh? Where… Wh-Whoa!” he tried to jolt up a bit, but I could tell he was still tired. “I… y-you… all…Wh-where am I? I'm not dead?”

Daishin shook his head. “Nope, just hospitalized. Congrats dude, you made it.”

Otaka began to count heads visibly. I did too in my head. Almost everyone was here, Amaterasu must have gone and got the stragglers, even the more irritable ones. “You guys… went through all this trouble… I put you through, and you still came to see me?”

Teruachi, who couldn’t actually see someone like him but was still here, was the first to pipe in. “Of course dude! We all care about you!

Homura agreed with him. “That is correct, Otaka. We all wanted to be with you when you first woke up… well… almost all of us at least, a few are still on their way. Don’t worry.”

Kujou pushed her way to the front and pulled out her notebook, getting a bit too much into Otaka’s face than she reasonably should. “Hey, how are you feeling, what was it like, did you regain any memories because of the trauma? Do you know-”

I pulled her back a bit. “Hey now… lets just leave all the questions about his health to Amaterasu… ok?”

Otaka looked towards everyone like he was a deer in some headlights. “You all… I'm… I'm so sorry… I… I didn’t mean to cause such a mess… I just wanted to make things right…”

Matsushita patted him on the arm. “Hey hey! Its alright! We can’t expect everyone to be perfect all the time, or else you would be like… a perfectly smooth white circle… or… something…”

I appreciated Matsushita’s effort. I could see the slightest of smiles rise up in the corner of Otaka’s mouth. “You guys… I… I didn’t know you all cared about me this much…”

By the time, everyone who hadn’t been on this floor had arrived. Michizoe burst through the crowd and gave Otaka a large hug. “Of course we love you ya big goof! Even if we’re still getting to know eachother, we’re still allies- no, friends! Allies is a weird word! Too formal!”

Everyone started to give their own forms of support, whether eloquently worded or deserving of a gold “You Tried” star. The rest of the evening was spent helping Otaka get accustomed to his new surroundings. He still wouldn’t let us see the result of his injuries, but we all took turns fetching him things and supporting him. While some were more enthusiastic than others, everyone helped pitch in at least a little. Finally, we heard the nighttime announcement play.

“Hey hey” I asked. “Is he going to be ok, like… sleeping in here?”

Amaterasu looked worried. “He’s going to have to be, he still needs his wounds to seal up some more before he can move out… but he should be fine by in a couple days…” I smiled a bit. I trusted Amaterasu to take care of Otaka. As I was leaving, I saw her call out for someone.

“Daishin? Can you come here please, we need to have a conversation about something, it won’t take long, I promise.” I could see him make a kissing motion towards us and yell “Goodnight everybody!” before Amaterasu punched his shoulder.  
  
I didn’t want to stay to eavesdrop on their conversation, but I supposed that Amaterasu had the intentions of trying to make things right with Daishin, despite his crude joke. I had made my way to my room. I was happy, today was a good day… so why did I still go to sleep with a deep anxiety in me?  
  
Despite everything, the rules were still in play. We were still indefinitely trapped in here until someone killed someone else. What's to stop someone from going and taking out Otaka when he was weak? We were all so happy before but… all it takes is a couple seconds in the wrong mindset to betray someone… but that wouldn’t really happen… would it? We’re all friends… right? But if it happened twice before… no… I couldn’t think about things like that. It wouldn’t happen again for a third time… would it?


	13. Chapter 3: A Strangers Shoes (Daily Life Pt. 2)

**DAILY LIFE: PART 2**

The next morning, we all attempted to enter the hospital, but we got as far as the door before The Overseer stopped us.

“Beat it you creeps! I'm trying to do something important, and I can't have a bunch of weasels ruining my work! Leave before you get hurt, or you hurt your friend again!”

“Hey!” Amaterasu called out. “What do you mean by again? We didn’t do anything!”

The Overseer just shook his head. “If you all just murdered each other like good kids, I wouldn’t have been forced to use such a despairing motive to get you to!”

“Ooooooooooor” Heisuke began. “You could have just, you know, not given us a motive to force us to kill. Living’s pretty nice, you know.”

“Lets just go.” Kujou motioned. “We’re clearly not going to convince him. Its not worth the trouble, let's come back later.”

We all made our way back towards the cafeteria. We were all quite curious about what kind of important thing the The Overseer could have been doing within the Hospital. Especially with Otaka still there, he could either be taken care of, or he could be being put out of his misery. The thought of Otaka dying after having survived such a horrific ordeal sent a chill down all of our spines. Breakfast, while late, was still silent.

“So… u-uhm…” Matsushita tried to begin a conversation, but he couldn’t seem to find the words to continue on the conversation.

“The uuh…” Teruachi poked at his breakfast. A Bowl of instant-oatmeal. “The Breakfast… its uuh… its food dudes, it sure is.” Teruachi poked at his oatmeal more, before daintily putting the tiniest scoop of it into his mouth.

Every time someone would try to initiate a conversation to get our minds off of things, it would eventually sputter out and we would be back to silence. The silence was only broken when one of us heard a rolling in the distance. It was a very faint rolling, a swee-ah, swee-ah sound, mixed with the slight creaking of metal and plastic. It was a sound none of us had heard before, None of us were able to guess what the sound was.

At that moment, Otaka wheeled his wheelchair into the cafeteria, the source of the mysterious sound revealing itself. “Ah, H-Hello everyone. I'm uum… g-g-glad to be back on my- oh… uuh… I’m better now.”

Daishin was one of the first to get up and walk towards him, though most if not all of us were right behind him, so he wasn’t anything special. “Alright, let's wheel you over here big guy, we’re glad to have you back.”

Yukimura poked Daishin in the side. “H-hey… I-isn’t it weird how y-you always… c-call people “Big Guy?"

Daishin Shrugged. “Heck dude, idk. Whatever I say, I just say, I guess. I call people Big Guy, its who I am.

Otaka brushed Daishin’s hands away from the handles of his wheelchair. “I-i'm… I'm not helpless you know. I can do it myself.” Otaka took hold of the mint-coloured wool blanket that was covering his lower half and pulled it up a bit more.

“Whoa! That's a cool blanket!” Michizoe said, pointing to the mint blanket with her too long sleeves. “What's under there?”

Amaterasu shook her head. “Michizoe, you, really don’t want to do that. Trust me. Unless you’re really desperate to see a gross looking bunch of holes.

Michizoe took a couple steps back. “Eeeewww! No way! I’ve got like, Trappophilia, or whatever!”

Otaka just sighed again. “Not much to look at anyways, The Overseer was operating today… he uh… said the damage was too much so, he had to take them…”

Amai perked up in surprise. “What? He took your legs right off? That's… wow… that's harsh. I'm sorry that had to happen.” Otaka Nodded.

Homura tapped a fork to her mouth, eyes closed in thought. “I suppose time and months of physio-therapy won’t help then… Do you think we could find him some prosthetics?”

Kujou peeked out from behind her book. “None of us are really trained for that sorta thing though. There’s no stairs, so we should probably just keep him in his wheelchair til we find a way to escape, I think.” 

Otaka managed to wheel his way into an empty spot by the table. That one… I guess nobody ever returned the seat that Kikuchi stole for her murder… I guess it all worked out in the end, but still…

With Otaka finally back, and the group somewhat mended back together, we could finally eat and converse in peace without the more pressing worries to worry about. Of course, the threat of murder was still in the back of my mind. It was in the back of everyone’s minds. No matter how happy a situation is, it was still doomed to be bittersweet so long as we were all trapped and forced to play this sadistic game. I really didn’t want to be the one to bring it up, but someone had to. If we kept this up, we would just be waiting for another tragedy to happen after all. I worked up the courage to take charge, tapped my spoon on my half-drank milk glass, and cleared my throat.

“This is all well and good, but uuh… shouldn’t we be working to get out?” I put out there. Immediately all the voices and mumbling among the group turned to silence. Crap, did I really blow it that badly?

“Wow.” Heisuke scoffed. “You really know how to kill a mood, huh? We just got a friend back, and you want to make us sad again. Real nice, Waruki. Maybe you’re talent is SHSL Despair considering how-”

“The fuck dude?” Teruachi flicked some orange peel towards Heisuke. Heisuke just scoffed and looked away. Teruachi continued. “It's like, important stuff, dude! Yeah this is a good time and and all, and we should enjoy it, but like, we still gotta think about it!”

Amai grabbed on to Teruachi’s shoulder and added on to his remarks. “Yeah! Kazuhi-chi is right! Don’t get mad at Waruki!”

 Matsushita scratched his head. “Hey… Who’s Kazuhi-chi? Do you uuh, mean, Kazuhiko? I didn’t know you were on first name basis.” Teruachi looked away, his face turning bright pink.

"Oh man! Are you who like, dating!?” Michizoe was flapping her arms in excitement at the thought. But was quickly shut down by Amai.

“Wh-What? No we’re not! I don’t even like Ka- Teruachi!” Amai impulsively thwaped Teruachi on the back of the head with a definitive “Ow!” being shouted out before grabbing him again, worriedly. “Oh shit! Are you ok?”

Amaterasu giggled snidely to herself. “Damn, that's pretty gay dude. Not that i'm judging you. Stick it to the heteronormative man, man.”

Amai shouted in frustration and barged out of the room at our teasing. “Ok guys…” Homura tried to calm us all down, even though even I was starting to giggle a little bit. “Its not nice to laugh at someone’s feelings. Someone should go get him.”

“Ill do it. He’ll probably respond to me best you know, if you get my drift, man.” Teruachi got up out of his seat and felt his way along the walls and out the door.

“So uuh…” Yukimura got up from her seat. “I guess uuh… th-that means that… b-breakfast is over… huh?”

Matsushita also got up. “If it is, I suppose I’ve got work to do. I wanna look at the pipes in the hospital changing room. There is nothing worse than a broken sink.”

“I have somewhere I want to go as well.” Amaterasu motioned for Daishin to come along. “We’re going to go inspect that crack again.” 

Heisuke snickered from the back. “Don’t cut your hand again, dude.”

Michizoe pointed towards Heisuke. “Hey! Don't be mean!”

Homura looked very annoyed at Heisuke. “Everyone else is starting to do something helpful, and what might you be doing to help?”

Heisuke got up and walked towards Otaka. “Normally I’d let Amaterasu take the first dibs but she’s gone, so Ill help Otaka. I can’t imagine you can get that accustomed to wheelchair _that_ quickly.”

Otaka seemed a little glad that someone would care about him that much. “Okay… uuh… I can move myself though, so please… don’t push me around.”

Michizoe bounced over to Kujou. “Hey! Wha’cha wanna do today?”

Kujou slammed her book shut in surprise. “Oh! I guess this… is my life now. Uuuh… We can go… i'm not sure.”

Michizoe started dragging her away, accidentally having her book left on the table. I couldn’t help but crack a smile. It was hard not to smile in a situation like this. Pretty much all of us were working together. I could feel the bonds of unity surrounding us. Homura picked up Kujou’s notebook that she had left behind. “I'm going to go return this to her room. I can tell its quite important to her. What are you going to do, Waruki?”

I wasn’t entirely sure. I mostly just hung out while we were here. I didn’t really have anything to do. Was there even anything else productive _to_ do in a situation like this? “I'm not really looking my best, before anything, I need to go wash up.” It was a pretty bad excuse for not doing anythng, but Homura seemed to agree with it anyways.

“Alright, don’t just laze around all day though. We need to find a way out."

I returned to my room and washed up. I didn’t really need to wash up, but so long as I still took the shower, nobody could call me a liar, right? I left my room and started down the halls. I had to do something, after all. The tricky bit was trying to figure out what that thing was. I knew that Homura would get mad at me if I just sat in my room all day, so I started heading towards the closest source of voices. It just so happened that those voices were coming from the Botanical Garden. I peered inside, and saw Teruachi and Amai sitting on a far bench, under a tree. I didn’t want to interrupt them, but I figured I’d enter anyways.

“Uuhm…” Teruachi began. “What does… your hair look like?”

Amai smiled brightly. “Well uuh… Its short, and orange, and I have a ponytail put in with a brown leather band!” 

Teruachi didn’t look amused. “Dude… I… I can’t see. What’s orange? I don't know dude!!!”

Amai looked a little embarrassed. “Oh. uhm… Its uuh… Its a very warm colour, like… a fire in a fireplace? And… my dress shirt is… it's a very soft pink! That's uuh… like a strawberry sorbet…”

Teruachi giggled to himself. “Dang, you sound pretty cute, Kichi-chi.”

Amai visibly took his hat and covered his face. I could hear a muffled screaming coming from the hat. “You’re not just saying that, are you?”

Teruachi shook his head. “Of course not! You… I kinda like you, you know. You just seem so cool you know? Its just- Hold up dude… Is someone there?”

Shit. I was caught. The best thing I could do in this situation was to try and play it cool, like I wasn’t trying to peep on someone’s romantic encounter. I just started walking down the path and “coincidentally” ran into Amai and Teruachi. “Oh hey!” I began “I didn’t know you guys were here!” I said, like a liar.

Amai started to get really flustered and try to back away. “Nothing! Its nothing! We aren’t dating!”

I simply stared at them. “I… never mentioned anything about…”

Teruachi began to laugh, understanding how embarrassed Amai was. “What? We aren’t? Damn dude, that's like, super disappointing dude.” 

Amai started to reassure Teruachi. “No no no! We are we just- oh.. Ah…”

I giggled. “Its ok, Amai. There’s no need to hide it. Besides, you already told me before you swung that way.”

Amai grumbled to himself before speaking up. “Fine, I like Kazuhi-chi, a lot! But like, please don’t make a big deal out of this?”

I smiled. Sure, it was nothing to really be ashamed of, but I wasn’t Amai. I didn’t know what was going on in his head. It would make me a pretty big asshole to make a deal out of it, even though pretty much everyone realized what was going on at this point.

“I uuh…” Amai looked a bit bashful. “I do kinda have to thank you though, Waruki. For uuh, helping me stop, like, doing that to the other girls.”

Teruachi just sat down on a wooden bench. “I didn’t notice anything, but, honestly, from the way he seemed around he I had a hunch.”

I ran a hand through my hair. “Oh Amai, its fine. You just need to be better about who you are, you know!”

Teruachi nodded, hugging Amai. “Yeah! I totes love you for the way you are, dude.” Amai screamed.

“Alright you two.” I began. I turned around and began to leave the garden. “I think you two lovebirds need some time alone. Ill just, leave for now, alright? Ill see you later.”

Teruachi waved me off while Amai still was looking off embarrassed. I honestly thought it was adorable, and I was glad that they could be happy together. Still though, I felt a little bad. I understood how Amai felt about his sexuality, he must have been dealt some shitty parents to have him be so apprehensive about it. As bad as it sounded, i'm glad that a situation like that can, at the very least, help him have a break from it. Even though it's a huge out of the pan and into the fire situation.

There was still time left in the day though, so I decided to poke around a little bit more. I wasn't exactly being helpful with going and eavesdropping on people’s love life. I had to think of something that I could talk about if Homura questioned me. I remembered that Matsushita was working on the sink up in the Hospital, so I rode the elevator up there. When I got there, I saw that the “Daily Visitors” Counter for the day had read “3.” I walked through the doors and as the doors opened, I heard a click. For a very brief moment, I saw the reader register “4” before going out of view. Three… that was Matsushita… as well as… I looked down the hall towards the hospital room with the crack in it to see Daishin and Amaterasu Investigating it. That must be the other two visitors. I peered into the change room behind the counter to see Matsushita, inspecting the pipes. He had a variety of other pipes on the floor with him as well.

“Hey!” I called out, softly.

Matsushita turned towards me, beaming a grin. “Ah! Hello Waruki! Do you want anything?”

I looked towards all of the supplies he had scattered around him. “Uuh, not really, do you need any help though?”

Matsushita ruffled his hair. “Well gee, That's awfully nice of you Waruki, but i'm not sure how much you’d be of help. I mean, you probably don’t know much about plumbing, do you?”

I cradled my arms, defensively. “I mean, I might. Who knows, my talent could be something to do with plumbing, and you would never know. Even if its a little small, do you still mind if I help out?”

Matsushita didn’t seem all too annoyed at me, despite my slight teasing. “I mean, sure! I suppose an extra two hands could never hurt, right?”

I helped Matsushita with his pipeworks. He tried to teach me the ropes, about the kinds of pipes and how fit with what, as well as water pressure and all sorts of variables I didn’t even know went into plumbing. It was honestly kind of interesting. Of course, Matsushita was a much more proficient plumber than me, and it would take me years to learn everything that he probably knew, but it was still very interesting to hear.

“So... “ I began. “Do you have any new leads for how to get out of here?”

Matsushita shook his head. “Well, no, but, I wonder where these pipes lead…”

I raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“Well…” Matsushita began. “There has to be a room where all the pipes lead. Whether it be a boiler room or something else. The Elevator doesn’t seem to go any lower, so its possible the maintenance room is on the upper levels, but, wouldn’t it seem weird to have a maintenance room in the upper levels of the building?”

“Yeah…” I began. “The pipes would have to lead somewhere. And not just here, for the showers and kitchen down below too, as well as the sink that's in the art room as well. Plus, there’s gotta be some large fusebox for all the lights and electronics in this place.”

“That's what i'm saying! Its strange. I wonder if that crack in the wall from back in that room has anything to do with it.”

The crack in the wall… What was its purpose for being there? My curiosity was getting to the better of me, but part of me also had the paranoia that we were following a false lead. What if there was nothing behind there? What if all our our fuss and curiosity amounted to just finding the insulation to whatever building we were in. I shook those thoughts. If we managed to get through there, then there was a chance that we could break through the walls of whatever is keeping us here.

“Hey.” Matsushita said, poking my shoulder. “Are you zoning out? I need some help with something.”

I nodded. “Yeah! Sure! Whatever you want. What is it that you need?”

He pointed towards the top. “Can you turn on the cold water for me? I wanna test that I have this right.”

I hopped up onto my feet and turned the tap for the cold water. A little bit came out, but by evidence of the gargling and surprised sound from below me, the pipe wasn’t a fit.

“Curses!” Matsushita yelled, his hair now covering his eyes from the dampness. “This pipe must be loose somewhere. Maybe if I… Hmm… no…”

  
“Whats wrong?” I asked him, from up above.

  
“No, Its nothing.” He replied. “Its just that, i'm not really all that smart, so it takes me a little bit longer to do these kinds of things.”

“Really?” I questioned. I wouldn’t see him as not smart, considering how much he schooled me on how plumbing and pipeworks worked. “I think you’re quite smart, Matsushita.”

“No... “ Matsushita started to giggle to himself. It seemed like he truly, honestly didn’t believe in his intelligence. “I don’t know my times tables, or a lot of the more intermediate kanji… all I really knew how to do when I was a kid was what my dad taught me, so I did.”

I let out a sigh of worry. “Well, when we get out of here, there’s always time for you, right? Like, that's why we were going to school. To learn.”

Matsushita scratched his head. “I really appreciate the thought, Waruki, but I don’t think there’s really any hope for me. I have this, and, that's fine. I could never-”

Before Matsushita could finish his sentence, the nighttime announcement rang.

“Alright boys and girls! Its time to get your sleep! You might not know this, but you have a big day tomorrow! So you better enjoy it, cause first thing tomorrow, you’re gonna turn a new leaf in your life! See you soon.”

“Well then…” Matsushita began. “That… is quite ominous… I suppose we should go, huh?”  Matsushita put all of his tools and supplies into the cabinet under the sink, got up, and started out the door.

“Hey!” I called out. “Shouldn’t you like, take your stuff with you?”

Matsushita brushed me off. “Ill be back here to fix this in the morning. I mean, Its what i'm good at, right? So I will spend no waking hours asleep til that is fixed! Plus, I doubt anybody is going to take the time to snoop into something as boring as a sink cabinet.”

I was really hesitant, but since he was the plumber I decided to trust him. I felt the twinge of uncertainty hit me once more. “I mean… if you’re certain…”

We met up with Amaterasu and Daishin on our way back down the elevator. They were still trying to figure out that crack, as it seemed deeper than they had anticipated. They were going to figure out what to do with it. However, as I was leaving, I noticed something large on the reception desk counter.

“Oh hey! Whats this?

Amaterasu came up from behind me. “I found it in the warehouse while looking for more things to bust down that wall. Its an Electric clock. It connects to the internet to get the exact time.”

I looked at the clock. It was a pretty fancy one. Instead of 8 lights to make a number, it was an LED array. As well as that, It looked like there was an unlit and very stylishly detailed drawing of the sun. It looked to me though like it was foreign. Like it was from some kind of English country. “You said this connects to the internet?” I said. “Do you think we could like, reverse engineer it to call for help?”

Amaterasu shook her head. “I'm not entirely sure that's how that works. Besides, even if it did, none of us have that know-how to do it. Lets just get some sleep, ok?”  


When we all managed to get back to our dorms, We shared some thoughts on the rather intimidating goodnight message The Overseer had shared with us. While none of us were sure what to make of it, we agreed to meet up first thing in the morning tomorrow to discuss it. I could tell we were all eyeing each other up, as if to silently say our final goodbyes before falling asleep. As I lied in my bed, I couldn’t help but wonder what this change in life was that The Overseer had mentioned. Part of me wanted to stay up in case he tried to do something, but I couldn’t help myself. After a long day, my eyes seemed to close themselves…

I startled awake in the middle of the night. I looked around the room. It was different. Where was I? Was I kidnapped again? Was this all a bad dream? My heart was racing, but as my night vision started to set in, I could tell I was in the dorm room again. Same layout as it had always been. I moved the hat off my nightstand and looked at the clock. 3am. I was too tired for this. I must have had some kind of dream and forgot it in the shock of waking up. I couldn’t keep going like this. If I was going to be prepared for whatever The Overseer was going to do to us, then I needed all the rest I could get. I rolled over and pushed the long hairs out of my face before falling back asleep once again.


	14. Chapter 3: A Strangers Shoes (Daily Life Pt. 3)

The morning of, what I could only assume was going to be the motive, we didn’t hear anything. Normally, The Overseer would call us to the Laboratory in order to give us some death defying motive. Today was… different however. I wouldn’t think that there was anything wrong, but with The Overseer’s threatening message yesterday, there was no way that we weren’t getting something. As I was just getting out of bed, I had this strange feeling that something was different. Maybe it was just my grogginess but nothing seemed immediately strange. I was starting to think that maybe he wasn’t going to do anything, and that the message was only there to make us paranoid of one another.

 

The chorus of screaming from the other rooms disproved my theory quite swiftly.

 

I burst out of my room, still in my Pajamas to see Homura acting as she never had before. Her normally stern demeanor was shattered by the girl freaking out, touching herself all over. Her normally stoic and serious face was now bug eyed, her mouth agape. She turned towards me. “Kujou! Something happened!”

 

I turned around, expecting to see Kujou behind me, but there was nobody there. Amidst the sounds of panic that seemed to be coming from people’s rooms, we were the only two people in the hallway. So why did she call me Kujou? Suddenly, I had a horrifying revelation. I looked at the door that I had just came out. Kujou was on the nameplate. I could feel my heart race as I pushed my way into the room and slammed open the door to the bathroom, taking a good long look at Kujou’s face. I was now in the body of the Super High School level Editor Akemi Kujou.

 

So that's what The Overseer meant by life would change.

 

I called towards whoever was now in Homura’s body. “Hey! Can you go try and gather everyone?”

 

The voice that came out wasn’t mine. That's not usually how the body swap worked in the movies, but I suppose that movies didn’t always have to be realistic. I made my way into the cafeteria, where others were still trying to find their way around. Otaka was bumping into walls with his wheelchair while Teruachi was struggling to stand. I managed to spot… myself from across the room. God, that was incredibly creepy. It was like looking at a clone of myself. Whoever was currently in my body, she had my shirt, my skirt, and even my white hair (that dumb lock I can never get to stay down included.) Eventually, most of us managed to calm down and sit.

 

“S-so…” Not Homura began. Wh-what should we do?”

“We must remain calm. This is another one of The Overseer’s tricks.” Not Michizoe said, sternly.

 

The Overseer suddenly dropped down from the ceiling. A hole had opened up, and he managed to worm his way out of it. “You’re damn right its another one of my tricks!”

 

Some of us screamed, while others just looked on resentfully towards the Overseer. Not Otaka turned towards The Overseer. “Aww man, like, why are you here dude?”

 

Not Yukimura snickered to herself. “I didn’t know you were allowed to roam free. Who let you decide that?”

 

The Overseer got a little bit angry. “Its my building! I get to make the rules! I could cut you in half for that remark! Of course, I won’t, but you know what I mean!”

 

Not Michizoe crossed her arms. “Explain yourself. This, by all technicalities and laws of humanity, shouldn’t be possible.”

 

The Overseer clapped. “You should know this by now, since I can force a migraine in order to pacify you all, but I messed with your heads! Its a real technological miracle!

 

“B-But..” Not Amai looked dumbstruck. “Maybe its just because i'm not as smart, but how can you even manage to swap bodies?”

 

“Well, my dear Matsushita!” The Overseer began. Out of the ceiling dropped a strange diagram with two people, hundreds of lines connecting parts. It was too confusing to understand. “You’re still technically in your bodies, but the electric signals for your movements are being wirelessly transmitted to whoever you are swapped with! Same goes for input! Its being sent to your brain, but you’re getting signals from and controlling someone else! Isn’t science the best?”

 

“It most certainly isn’t!” Not Matsushita, who must have been swapped with Amai said. “Turn us back!”

 

The Overseer scoffed. “Oh, don’t worry. Ill put you in a new body every night. At 3am sharp, you will be switched, so its done seamlessly while you’re asleep!”

  
“That's not the problem,” Not Homura began. “I kinda liked my old body…”

 

The Overseer let out a terrifying, loud laugh. “Well then! You probably know what i'm about to say, but there is one way for you all to get back into your own bodies!”

 

Not Teruachi bit his fingernails. “You… want us to kill…”

  
“You Betcha!” The Overseer’s singular pupil suddenly got very joyed. “The second I sense someone bit the dust, you all will be returned to your normal bodies, guaranteed! That's all for me! Please forward all questions about the motive to [ OverseerRulez@Gmail.com ](mailto:OverseerRulez@Gmail.com) ”

The Overseer began to ascend into the ceiling once again, alongside his confusing diagram. “So long! Have a beautiful tragedy!”

 

We all sat with each other, still in a state of shock. This was our life now, wasn’t it? Until someone died, we would stay here, trapped in other people’s bodies. The circumstances have gone from horrifying to downright bizarre. I wouldn’t say that I don’t miss my own body though. Seeing… myself, talking, it wasn’t natural. I didn’t like it. Since I was in Kujou’s body, it meant that Kujou was the one in mine.

 

“So…” Kujou began. “What should we do first?”  
  
I decided to cut in. “We should probably make a list of who swapped with who, so there’s no confusion, right?”

 

“Yeah man!” Not Heisuke said. “That's a great idea.”

 

I allowed Kujou to return to her rightful room and grab her notebook. Eventually, after much discussion, we managed to pin down who had swapped with who for today.

 

[Waruki & Kujou]

[Yukimura & Amaterasu]

[Michizoe & Homura]

[Daishin & Amai]

[Matsushita & Heisuke]

[Teruachi & Otaka]  
  
Kujou held up her notebook. “Does this look right?” Everyone nodded. “Right, then there’s just one more thing I wanted to ask. Disabilities, still stay, right? Because of the way the supposed ‘swap’ works?”

  
Otaka nodded. “I'm back in a body with legs but… I can’t see.”

  
Teruachi also agreed. “I can’t see either. There’s no eyes there to transmit dude! Because of that, anyone who’s swapped with me is gonna be as blind as I am.”

 

“He’s blind and in a wheelchair…” Yukimura began. “S-someone has to take care of him. He’s p-p-practically helpless...”

  
Amai, in Daishin's body, was the first to volunteer. “Ill do it!”

 

Despite everything being turned sideways, we all still managed to retain our sense of friendship. This motive was probably going to be the toughest one we’ve faced yet, as there was no sign of when The Overseer would just give up and let is go back. However, I had faith that we would be able to tough it out.

 

I got washed up (It was as awkward and horrible as you think it was) and went out. I started looking around, seeing people trying to get used to their new bodies. I even saw Kujou. She had managed to get the springy lock of my hair down. I, under no circumstances, would ever talk to myself though, so I went on my way.

 

Eventually I found Yukimura in the music room. She was poking and prodding at her new body. Amaterasu was quite different than Yukimura after all. “A-Ah!” Yukimura said, noticing me. “Hi Kuj- Ah, I mean W-Waruki!”

 

“Oh, Hello Yukimura!” I answered. “What are you doing here?”

 

“Oh!” Yukimura folded her arms into herself. “I just… like to c-c-come here, cause its q-quiet…”

 

“Ah yeah… you would be right.” I looked up at the ceiling and around the walls. “There are a lot of noise reduction pieces in here. I bet you could hear your own heartbeat if you were alone in here.”

 

“You could… until… y-y-you came…”

 

I had a look of surprise on my face. “Oh! I'm sorry! I can leave if you want!”

 

“No!” Yukimura called out to me. “Its fine! I just, don’t w-want this serenity… to…”

 

I sat down in one of the metal chairs by the stage. “Its ok, it doesn’t have to be loud if you don’t want it to.”

 

Yukimura crooked a faint smile at me. “Th-thank you, W-waruki.”

 

Both of us sat in the Music Room, silent, for a good little while. While we could slightly hear muffled voices and footsteps coming from outside. Despite that, nobody else really entered the music room. Eventually, Yukimura spoke softly towards me. “Hey… Waruki… are you… w-w-worried, about this m-motive?”

 

“Hm?” I perked up. “Well, it is worrying, but I don’t think its immediately bad.” I put my index and thumb to my chin. “It is curious though, how they were able to do this…”

 

“Nnggggg!!!” Yukimura let out a frustrated cry and gripped her temples. “What d-d-did they do to my h-head?”

 

“H-hey hey!” I held out my hands towards Yukimura. “P-please! Just calm down!”

 

“I-i'm sorry, W-Waruki… I just…” Yukimura was shaking more than usual now. “I just… I feel sick…” Yukimura suddenly crumpled in on herself. “I'm… wh-wh-whats… h-h-happening… w-was I…”

 

“Y-Yukimura!” I called out. I tried to think of what could possibly be happening with her when I finally realised. If the phsyical ailments of everyone are transferred, then that must mean… “W-Wait here!” I called out to her before rushing out of the music room and into the bar. I grabbed the first bottle off the shelf I could reach, Malt Scotch, as well as a wine glass and rushed into the room once again. “Here, Yukimura, drink this?” I had no idea how Alcoholism worked, but it was too perilous of a situation to go and try and find Amaterasu.

 

Yukimura spat out the scotch. “Eeuuuugghhh, Wh-what are you t-t-trying to do? P-Poison me? I n-n-never drink alcoh- aaaagh!” Yukimura crumpled a bit more, holding her head.

 

I pleaded with her. “Please, I know you don’t but uuh... “ I felt extremely guilty for telling Yukimura about Amaterasu’s secret, but I didn’t want to just leave Yukimura alone to suffer. “...but Amaterasu does, and this looks like withdrawal… i think. I'm not sure, but its worth a try.”

 

Yukimura scrunched up her nose. “Y-you b-b-b-better not be b-b-betraying m-me with th-th-this…” She scrunched up her nose and drank the scotch, just a little bit at a time. She didn’t see any immediate effects though, but she still thanked me. “Th-thank you… I… th-think… I… d-don’t know whats h-happening but… th-thanks…”

 

“No problem.” I replied. “Now, come on, lets get yourself up, you’re in no shape to be left alone.”

 

I spent the rest of the day pretending to be a nurse and trying to help Yukimura. Eventually, it was time once again to go to sleep.

 

“Hey.” I asked her. “Are you going to be fine by yourself?”

 

“Y-Yeah…” she replied. “I-if i'm going into a different body… the pain… sh-should go away…”

 

“Hmm… That makes sense…” I replied. “Just, be careful, alright?”

  
“Alright… Thanks, Waruki. You’re a real good p-person, you kn-know that?” Yukimura waved me off.

 

“Thank you, Yukimura, I appreciate that.”

 

…

 

“Good Morning Participants. Its time to wake up! I hope you can get accustomed to your new bodies!”

 

I sat up in my room and cracked my neck a bit. I looked over and saw a beige hat and uniform hanging off the back of my door. That must mean that I was in Homura’s body today. I looked into the mirror into the bathroom. What was Homura’s hair like. She had it in a ponytail. Shit, I’ve never had to make a good looking ponytail before. It wasn’t going to look good at all, but it was passable.

 

We all met again in the Cafeteria, exchanging info until, once again, Kujou was able to make a list of who was in who’s body for the day.

 

[Waruki & Homura]

[Kujou & Yukimura]

[Amaterasu & Michizoe]

[Heisuke & Otaka]

[Amai & Teruachi]

[Daishin & Matsushita]

 

“Alright.” Kujou began. “That should take care of that.”

 

“Hey,” Heisuke wheeled himself over. “You could rip that page out so that we don’t have to keep it in our minds, maybe?”

 

Kujou held her book closer to her. “Of course not! This book, I can’t just go ripping pages out, its important!”

 

Michizoe raised her hand.”Ghhh, can we talk about this some other time? I don’t feel too good…”

  
“Ah…” Yukimura began. “I can help with th-that… You can c-come with me, Michizoe.”

  
The two of them both walked out of the room. Everyone was only half paying attention, but Amaterasu seemed very agitated with something.

  
“Waruki, Dear, would you perhaps know why Yukimura would know how to fix that?”

 

My heart dropped. Shit, Amaterasu was smarter than I thought. “Fix what? She’s probably just gonna get her some tylenol” I said, like a liar.

 

“Don’t _bullshit_ me Waruki! Don’t you _fucking_ dare!” Amaterasu yelled, getting up out of her chair and pointing towards me. Great, she was doing this again. “I know my own body better than anyone else here! Michizoe has it today, and Yukimura had it yesterday! Can you connect the dots, Moron?”

 

Homura immediately tried to get Amaterasu to calm down. “Please, Calm down!” however, Amaterasu imediately slapped her. I got up this time.

 

“You keep your hands off her!” From around me, everyone was starting to try and get out of the situation. Instead of standing by me, they were all going to run. Cowards. I was pissed at Amaterasu now. “If you touch her again Ill destroy you!”

 

“Ha!” Amaterasu laughed. “As if! Snitches like you are all talk, no action. I could drop you in an instant, bitch! We had an understanding! I thought I could trust you! I hope you die!”

 

The next thing I remember was a hard cracking noise, followed immediately by a sharp pain, before hitting the floor. Thoughts dazed around my head. I realized that I must have lost consciousness at some point…

 

…

 

...

 

I sat down on the Infirmary bed. The nurses took my blood pressure as I was given form after form from tall, old men in business suits. They were mostly consent and waiver forms.

 

“Its just… a shot, right?”

 

I looked to my left at the man sitting in the chair. The principal of Hope's Peak Academy.

 

“Yes. The forms will say that its a collection of DNA, but really, that's all legal mumbo-jumbo. We just need a blood test to make sure that we are able to go through with the… “procedure.”

 

I looked down at the last form that the man gave to me. One shot, and I got a full scholarship, huh? “What if it doesn’t work?” I asked. “Wouldn’t this talent be moot if it doesn’t work?”  
  
The man shook is head. “No, if it doesn’t work, you will still get to go.” I nodded, and signed my name where he pointed. “Thank you, dear. The Steering Committee and Hope's Peak Student Council will take it from here.”

 

I felt the needle make its way into my skin. This was it. I was officially a student at Hope's Peak Academy. All I had to do now was…

 

....

 

...wake up.

 

I came to in Homura’s dorm room, which is where I was going to be sleeping Tonight. She was there with me. Despite how much we’ve grown, it still felt weird having myself look at me. I silently was glad that after this ordeal was over, I wouldn’t have to deal with something that weird again. Also in the room were Kujou, in the body of Yukimura, as well as Otaka and Heisuke in eachothers.

  
“Oh thank god, you’re awake!” Kujou walked over to me. “Are you ok? You’re gonna have it pretty nasty for a couple days I think.”

 

“Hm?” I pulled myself up in my bed. “What do you mean?”

 

Otaka walked over to me and held up a handheld mirror. “You uuh... “

 

I looked. I had gauze on my nose and a real shiner on my eye. “Oh shit!” I shouted. “Dang, that doesn’t look good.”

 

“Ahah… don’t worry” Homura said. “When this is all said and done, Ill be the ones with the battlescars.” I appreciated her attempt at lifting my spirits. Still, I felt bad.

 

“I'm sorry, I really shouldn’t have done that…”

 

“Its ok.” Homura began. “I apprecaite someone who will stick up for their comrades. That was very brave of you, even if you don’t know how to fight.”

 

“I-I do so!” I said, defensively.

 

“Kinda sucks that we couldn’t bring you to the hospital though.” Heisuke began.

 

“Huh, Why’s that?” With the hospital open, it would make sense for me to be cared of there.

 

“Amaterasu and Daishin seem to be there a lot.” Kujou began. “I don’t know what they are doing, but putting you two together would probably just escalate the situation again.”

 

“Don’t worry about it. They’re probably just getting it on, teenagers like that have need too ya’know.”

 

Otaka slapped the back of Heisuke’s head lightly. “Learn some tact! You’ve gotten so much meaner since we’ve gotten here!”

 

“Oooowww…” Heisuke rubbed the back of his head. “Well sooooorrry that the stress of having my friends killed is lowering my filter!”

  
“Its very concerning if the only thing stopping you from being an asshole is your filter.” Kujou remarked. “We should talk about that.”

 

“No!” Homura shouted. “No we are not. We are here to bicker! We’re here to care for Waruki!”

 

“Yeah… sorry about that. Ill try to have more tact, I guess.” Heisuke wheeled himself over to me. “How’s this, do you need some water or something? You’ve been passed out all day.”

 

“All Day???” I was honestly shocked. “Why didn’t any of you tell me that?”

 

“Sorry, we wanted to make sure you weren’t seriously hurt before we dealt with that.” Homura took my hand and helped me up. I tried my hardest to hide my blushing. “Alright, so, what now?”

 

“You need to eat something.” Otaka said. “What do you usually like to eat?”

 

“Well…” I began. “I guess I like Kalamari?”

 

“Ooh, good choice. Likes… Kalamari…” I could see Kujou jotting it down. Did that girl write everything down? “I don’t know if we have that… but we can always go check!”

 

I spent the evening eating in my room with my guests. After that, we all got a lesson on how to administer first aid to broken noses from Homura. Homura was the one teaching us, not the one who was giving out the broken noses.

 

“How did you even managed to de-escalate that?” I asked.

 

“When she saw she K.O.’ed you, she got all sheepish and ran out of the room. Probably didn’t want Homura to go full Sakakura on her.”

 

Homura shot the iciest of glares at Heisuke for his comment, but tried her best to change the subject. “I didn’t know you knew about the boxing world.”

 

Heisuke shrugged. “Hey, i'm involved in athletics, why wouldn’t I know a thing or two about a former SHSL Boxer?”

 

“But…” Otaka questioned Heisuke. “Boxing and Pole Vaulting is kinda different.”

 

“Eh.” Heisuke walked towards the door. “I’ve got the money to burn, I’ve bet on a couple of his matches. Besides, its almost gonna be night, I'm going to go walk around. I'm not tired at all.”

 

Heisuke left. “Well, we should be taking our leave too.” Otaka and Kujou both exited the room, talking about how it feels to walk.

 

“So uuh…” Homura began. “I'm going to sleep too… I’d stay the night but I can’t… because of the circumstances.” I could see Homura’s blush. Was I really that obvious when I was blushing normally?

 

“Y-Yeah…” I replied. God, what an awkward situation.

  
“I uuh, I wouldn’t want to be with anyone but you, so, G-goodnight Waruki!” Homura immediately left the room. It was the first time that I had seen her flustered like that. I got back into my bed just as the nighttime announcement rang. It was going to happen again. We were going to be fine though. Nobody had any murderous intent, so I was certain that we were going to perservere. I hoped I wasn’t going to be put into Amaterasu’s body tomorrow, that would be awkward. Simple, non-important thoughts such as that fluttered in my mind til I managed to fall asleep.

 

The next thing I knew, I was in the hospital.

  
I wasn’t in any kind of bed, but I was in the room with the crack in the wall, holding a mallet. Across from me was… Matsushita. No, not Matsushita, whoever was in his body. The 3am Switch! Damnit! I must have swapped into someone awake! Matsushita looked at me dazed for a couple seconds, before shouting towards me.

 

“N-No! G-Get away from me with that thing!”

 

He must have been talking about the mallet. I dropped it. “What? No! I'm not going to hurt you!” I foolishly took another step towards him.

 

“No! Y-You won’t get me!” He suddenly grabbed an object off the cart in the room and slashed it against my throat.

 

I immediately fell to the ground, the hot, sharp, burning pain paralyzing me as my scream ran out through the halls. I could hear another commotion as hot fluid poured down my throat. I writhed, trying to get a closer look at the situation, but the pain forced my eyes to be scrunched shut. More and more, the sounds faded, I tried to hold on to my life for dear life but that grip was slipping. I didn’t have the strength to hold on anymore, so a cold, blackness enveloped myself…

 

 

...and I died.

 

I felt an arm jostling me awake as I felt that I was screaming again. I looked up. I was in the middle of the dorm hallways. Kujou was shaking me awake. “Waruki, Something happened, i'm myself again!”

  
I looked down. There’s that classic blue shirt. It felt good to be back in my own body, but I was also really concerned about what this meant. Someone had died. I was that person who died. I lightly pushed Kujou out of the way. “Go wake everyone up, we need to go to the hospital, now! If I can just get there in time I might…”

 

I hurled myself into the elevator and went up to the Hospital. Matsushita was certainly still there, so I knew for certain that he wasn’t going to be the killer. If I could catch him before he started freaking out, then I might be able to get some clues! The elevator opened and I rushed into the hospital, down the hallway. I went to go see if Matsushita was still there, and…

I found him.


	15. Chapter 3: A Strangers Shoes (Deadly Life)

Two… there were two of them. Before me, the dead bodies of Eiko Michizoe and Ryota Matsushita lay. I could hear the commotion behind me but I could not speak. Before we only had to deal with one at a time, so why were there two of them? I sank to my knees as Kujou ran in behind me, letting out a pitiful scream, horror mixed with defeat.

 **_*DING DONG DING DONG*_ ** _A Body Has Been Discovered!_

The first body announcement. Perhaps the only one? Maybe if there was one that meant there was still time to save one! I wasn’t sure if The Overseer was going to use the same announcement for both bodies. I tried to crawl over to the pile of bodies but before I could, I heard more scurrying of feet behind me as a chorus of pained wails rang out.

 **_*DING DONG DING DONG*_ ** _A Body Has Been Discovered!_

There it was. The second body discovery announcement. So it was real. We were going to do it all again. And after all of us were getting along so well. So why… why was someone dead.

“Well well well! I didn’t expect to see a double! I suppose I’ll allow it though!”

I heard The Overseer’s voice. He must have been talking to the crowd. I didn’t bother to get up and join. It wouldn’t have made a difference. Joining a crowd wouldn’t have brought Michizoe or Matsushita back.

“I'm still working on a little pain in my side, so I will let it go for now, but for now lets get right to it! The third SeerFile is coming right your way!”

I felt the buzzing in my pocket. I suppose that is what I had to do now. Somehow, I managed to pull myself to my feet.

“Yo, Waruki” Heisuke said, walking up to me. “You wanna uuh… try working together?”

“Hm?” I asked him. “Why do you want that?”

Heisuke scratched the back of his head. “I dunno man, just Homura wants me to act nicer. I'm trying, you know?”

I smiled. “Well, alright. Is there anything you know?”

“Weeeeellllll” Heisuke looked hesitant. “I did see them- well, no, whoever was in Matsushita and Michizoe’s bodies, I saw them go up the elevator last night. Didn’t bother following them but… I would have had I known this had happened. Ah well, shit happens, I guess. Still though…”

 

[HEISUKE’S ACCOUNT) Has been added to your truth bullets.

 

“Okay... “ I looked around. “Where do you think we should begin?

“Well…” Heisuke mused. “There’s another large word in the SeerFile… but I don’t think you’re gonna have very much luck with Amaterasu. That was a pretty sick punch. She certainly knows how to follow through.”

“Ugh, can you not bring that up?” I replied. “I can still feel my face hurting from that incident…”

“Yeah yeah, fine… but the point is, you can’t just go ask her. I wouldn’t be surprised if she purposefully gave you the wrong definition.”

It was at that moment that I had realised I hadn’t actually checked the SeerFile. Yeah, that was probably something that I should be doing I pulled out my eyePhone and looked for the third Seerfile.

_The victims are Eiko Michizoe and Ryota Matsushita. Estimated time of death is around 3:00 in the morning. The victims died within seconds of eachother. The victims are found in the Hospital Hallway. The former of the victims died of Exsanguination via a sliced throat, whereas the latter of the victims died as a result of a depressed fracture in the skull delivered via a blunt object._

 

[SEERFILE 3) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

“Hmm, Exsanguination… huh?” I looked up towards Heisuke. “Yeah, I'm drawing a blank. We can’t really ask Amaterasu, can we? You’re probably better off working with someone else.”

“Aw nonsense!” Heisuke pointed towards the door. “I have an idea, go stand out there for a second, would you?”

I wasn’t sure what he was doing. I stood outside the door to the hospital room and watched as Heisuke asked Amaterasu. He then motioned me back in.

“Fancy term for blood loss she says. Real Brutal. I feel so bad for her, it must have hurt.”

I could see Amaterasu glaring at both me and Heisuke, shooting knives into him with her stare. Bitch. I had gotten punched and stabbed, and now here we were investigating at 3 in the morning. I’d complain about this ruining all of our sleep schedules if we didn’t have more pressing matters to attend to.

“Yeah…” I began, turning back towards Heisuke. “It uuh… it certainly did.”

Heisuke perked up towards me. “What?”

I looked at him. “Did you forget? The whole deal with body swapping? I was…”

“Oh…” Heisuke’s face shrivelled up a little. “I'm so sorry, that must have been hell.”

“Don’t worry” I reassured him. “It was.”

“Well…” Heisuke looked down at the bodies. “It looks like you weren’t the only one. Matsushita got messed up too…”

I wanted to bring up Matsushita but… I didn’t want to confuse everyone. This was the kind of info that I had to wait to reveal just at the right time, or else we might overlook something.

“He’s all slumped over on top of her and everything, this is just tragic.” Heisuke tried pulling him off Michizoe. “Sorry bud.”

 

[BODY POSITIONING) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

“Ugh…” Heisuke was trying his best not to get any blood on him. “This shirt is worth over ¥30k, I can’t afford to get it stained here.”

“Hmm…” I looked on at Heisuke’s Struggle. Of course Heisuke would have a lot of trouble, Matsushita was much more bloody thanks to the little… incident… before the bodies dropped. Matsushita was very bloodied up from that. I'm surprised Heisuke is having as much success as he is.

 

[BLOODY CLOTHES) HAVE BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

“Hold on…” I noticed something glimmering in the light from where Matsushita originally was. I bent down near Michizoe and picked it up. “This is…” It was the ice pick from before. This time however, it was bloodied. “Ah, so this is where…” I stopped myself. I put it back down. The blood was still wet, and I didn’t want it getting on me at all.

 

[ICE PICK) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

“Okay…” I got back up, looking around. “Is there anything else that we can… uuh… infer from here?”

Heisuke snickered to himself. “You’re starting to sound like sherlock holmes, or nancy drew, or detective conan, or something like that.” His smile suddenly dropped, getting a lot more serious. “I sincerely hope you aren’t getting complacent with doing this.”

I looked up. “O-of course not!” What kind of accusation was that?!?! Of course I wasn’t getting complacent! I wanted out of here just as much as he wanted. “L-look… lets just…” I saw Kujou writing something down near the crack in the wall from before. Looking for a way to change the subject, I went to her and started a conversation. “Hey! Kujou! Uuh, whats that you’re doing?”

“Oh! Hey Waruki.” She looked up at me, folding closed her book. “I was just looking at this wall… does it seem more damaged to you?

I looked at it closely. “Hmm… I suppose now that you mention it, it does look a little more damaged… “

 

[CRACKED WALL) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

I looked back towards Kujou. “How did you manage to notice that?”

Kujou chuckled. “Remember how I said I always wanted to be an Investigative Journalist? I’ve taught myself to see the smaller details. Even when i'm editing the paper, My job is to notice the small details.”

“Yeah… that's a very good skill to have! I still need work on it!” I smiled lightly at her.

“Yeah… are you ok by the way?” Kujou reopened her book and got her pencil primed and ready. “When I found you… you were lying down in front of Matsushita’s door… I saw you passed out there…”

 

[KUJOU’S ACCOUNT) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS?

 

That… must have been Michizoe’s doing. “Really? That's… strange... “

Heisuke called towards both of us. “Hey, are you all done here?” Heisuke was holding… a metal mallet.

“Whoa!” I shouted. “Where did you find that?”

Heisuke pointed towards the ground by the crack. “It was just… lying there. Don’t know why though, doesn’t look bloody.”

 

[HAMMER) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

“Hmm…” I put my finger to my chin. “Well, we can probably figure that out later. I think that's about all we can get from here, right?”

“Yeah…” Heisuke said, a little pitifully. “I’d rather not have to deal with any more corpses than I already have, you know?

“Oh, yeah.” I agreed. “That's totally fair. Besides, there’s probably more evidence somewhere else.”

We both left the hospital room and walked down the hallway. There were more people here down in the reception looking around the seats and the counters. Immediately, I could smell more of the coppery blood. I didn’t really want to be here. I walked up to the clock on the counter. It was already 4am. The sooner we could finish this and attempt to fix our sleep schedule the better, in my eyes. Wait… Something was off about this clock. There was a sun symbol lit up now. Was that… always there?

 

[CLOCK DISPLAY) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

Both me and Heisuke had heard some kind of voice coming from the other side of the counter. We peered over to see Teruachi, hunched down over something. He must have noticed us from the sounds of our footsteps.

“Oh!” He looked up at both of us and got up. “Jeez… you guys scared me there for a second!”

“What… were you looking at?” I questioned him.

“Oh yeah!” he immediately bent back down and brought back up and iron pipe, it was covered in blood. It was wet too, dripping and staining Teruachi’s hands. He didn’t seem to quite notice though.

“Whoa…” I looked at the pipe. That was very clearly one of Matsushita’s pipes. “Did you find that behind the counter?”

“Ayup! I found this stashed behind here. I was trying to feel for things, and I found it! I think this is one of the murder weapons!”

 

[IRON PIPE) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

“Hmm… you’re probably right…” Heisuke began. “I mean, its already bloodied, and the blood is wet. Oh, you probably shouldn’t be holding it like that though.” Heisuke pointed towards Teruachi’s hands. The blood was still dripping onto his hands.

“Oh son of a-!” He exclaimed before shooting his hands down. “Aaagh, they’re all dirty now!”

I looked towards the changing room door. “There’s a sink back there, isn’t there?” Right, Matsushita was fixing the sink up in there.

“Hold on, Waruki.” Heisuke pointed towards the handle. “We probably don’t want him messing with that.” There was blood on the handle to the door.

Me and Heisuke carefully tried opening the door and avoiding the blood, while Teruachi followed us into the room. “Whoa…” I looked at the sink. The handles were all bloodied, and there were drips of blood in the sink.

 

[CHANGING ROOM BLOOD) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

“Do you think that the killer went and cleaned their hands?” Heisuke asked.

“I… Don’t think that's possible.” Teruachi responded, his hands feeling towards the bottom of the sink, getting even more blood everywhere. “Look at all these pipes.

We all looked down. The pipes for the sink were all still left out. This must have been from when Matsushita was still trying to repair it. He never was one to put away his things, I found.

 

[BROKEN SINK) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS.

 

“Alright…” I began. “So… We have that settled. Its a shame Teruachi can’t wash his hands though.”

I could feel the claustrophobia of the 3 of us trying to avoid the mess in here. Normally the room was a little more spacious, but now...

“Don’t slip, look at all the pipes around here!” Heisuke pointed to the ground. Jeez! Matsushita was a lot messier than I anticipated. Then again, he probably didn’t expect to die, so he had no reason to put the pipes away.

 

[PILE OF PIPES) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS)

 

“Well... “ I looked around. God it was cramped in here. “I think… that's probably everything in here, right?”

“Is it? Alright cool dudes.” Teruachi said, pushing his way out of here. I sincerely hoped he didn’t get blood on any of us. “I need to go wash my hands now, this is like, super uncool, you know?.” We both saw him walk out of the hospital.

“So uuh…” Me and Heisuke looked at eachother awkwardly. “What do you think?”

Heisuke scoffed. “I think he still needs to work on not ruining a moment. You would think he would wait til after we’ve saved our own skins to wash his hands, but hey, I can sorta understand. I’ve gotten my hands dirty lots of times like that.”

“Huh?” I looked at Heisuke shocked. “Like, with blood?!”

“What? No! I meant just dirty in general!” Heisuke looked just as shocked as I was. I guess that was a pretty stupid question.

“Really? Aren’t your parents rich though? You probably have people to do the dirty work, right?”

Heisuke scowled to himself. “Maybe dad did, no- dad definitely did, and Lil bro did too… so why did I-”

“Hey… Heisuke, are you alright?” I took a step closer to him. “You’re talking to yourself.”

“Huh? Yeah, i'm fine, just thinking about back home. One day, i'm sure one day I’ll be able to go back. I just… I’d never kill… definitely not.”

“Yeah, I know how you feel… lets uuh… lets change the subject, alright? Do you think there’s anything else in the Hospital?”

“Probably not… We’ve pretty much looked everywhere there’s things out of place… maybe we should go.”

 Heisuke waved me off. “Ill stick behind and keep looking, maybe we missed something. See ya later, Waruki!”  

I waved back towards Heisuke. It was awfully strange how he was acting. I hope he was doing alright. I looked back to look once more when I noticed something particularly peculiar. “Huh?”

The reader for the “Total Visitors” today still read… 12… I tried to do the math in my head. That was everyone coming in once. I suppose it made sense, considering that we all went to go investigate.

 

[TOTAL VISITORS COUNT) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

Alright… lets move on then. I walked down to the elevator and got in. The thing that I wanted to do the most was try and investigate both of the victim’s rooms. Maybe, just maybe, there were some kinds of clues in there. I mean, it was the most logical deduction, right? What with this whole Body Swap motive, it was getting a little confusing. I mean, Swapping people? I suppose if I tried to understand it, then it made a little bit of sense. How did it work again? Swapping what the target sees and sending it directly to the brain… disabilities carried over... it swapped at 3am... I think. The whole explanation was a bunch of technobabble to me.

 

[BODY SWAP RULES) HAVE BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

I stepped out of the Elevator. Firstly, I wanted to visit Mastushita’s room. From what I remember hearing before, the rooms were unlocked for investigation purposes. It was good, considering I don’t really want to loot the bodies for the phones if they weren’t. When I went into his room though, everything seemed normal. The bed wasn’t made, sure, but considering everything, I don’t think that would be very substantial. I mean, everyone got up, and everyone came up. That's why-

Hey, wait, if that's why the body discovery announcement rang, then why… did it ring at two separate occasions. You would think that it would ring for both of them when Me, Kujou, and the first other person saw them. So why… did it ring out when just me and Kujou got there?

 

[DISCOVERY ANNOUNCEMENT BUFFER) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

I left Matsushita’s room. Nothing was there, but perhaps the same won’t be said for Michizoe… I walked down the hall a bit and got to Michizoe’s room. I creaked open the door. Michizoe’s room didn’t look all that different from Matsushita’s room. Same not-made bed, same sort of cleanliness… but I did notice something odd. There was a note on the desk. I went over and picked it up.

_We are going to finally break out of here. I have a plan. Please meet me at 1am, I don’t want the Overseer to be down our necks because of this, so it has to be late at night. This is the night we’re doing this. So please be prepared for anything._

_-You Know Who._

 

[CONSPIRING NOTE) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

Alright. Now that that was taken care of. The next place I think I should go is-

"Alright chumps! That's about enough time out of you. Lets get this show on the road! Shimmy on down to the Laboratory and lets see who will win!”

...Great. Well, I didn’t plan on investigating much more anyways. That was a lie. I was. No matter now though, I had to just take all that I found and maybe, just maybe, it would be enough to catch the killer.

The 10 of us that remained gathered in the Laboratory. The decor this time was very… strange. There were trees and shrubbery lining the entire room, but out of the walls and trunks metallic pipes were stringing all the flora together in a really jagged and inefficient manner. I suppose The Overseer had to mix Hiking and Plumbing in some way.

Speaking of, I looked at the podiums again. Directly across from me was Michizoe’s. Her face was crossed out with two footprints. I looked to her right, and saw Matsushita’s crossed out with two Wrenches. Just for good measure, I looked to my left a little ways and saw Kikuchi’s portrait, crossed out with two Microphones. Sickening.

Despite all the gruesome theatrics however, we still made our way to our podiums. This was going to be it… huh? Once again, we had to find out who killed our friends. Who killed Michizoe and Matsushita.

Michizoe was always energetic and outgoing, sometimes to a fault, but she never stopped believing in the best for everyone. Matsushita was much of the same. He clearly didn’t have much confidence in his own intelligence or his abilities in many things, but he had a lot of confidence in his own SHSL Ability. Hope for everyone to do their best, and hope for your own talent and being able to find your own way to help everyone…

That was their hope.

That same hope is what's going to get us through this trial. The hope that all of us could pull together and find Michizoe and Matsushita’s killer. The hope that all of us could work together, 9 against 1. The hope that all of us would be able to survive another deadly class trial.


	16. Chapter 3: A Strangers Shoes (Class Trial)

**THE CLASS TRIAL FOR THE MURDER OF EIKO MICHIZOE AND RYOTA MATSUSHITA IS NOW IN SESSION**

 

“Now then, allow me to begin with a simple explanation of the rules. So, your votes will determine the killer! If you vote for the person who killed Eiko Michizoe, as well as Ryota Matsushita, then only they will be punished, and the rest of you can continue your entrapped lives. However, if you vote for the wrong one… I will punish everyone besides the blackened and the one who deceived you all will get to leave this place, Now then, let's begin.”

“Firstly, before we begin…” Kujou turned towards The Overseer. “There is a question I need to ask. What would happen in the event of multiple murderers?”

The Overseer thought for a second, before responding. “Hmm, You’re right. I suppose we should have two voting times. Alright! You will be voting for each case separately! But that also means you need to get both right! If you get one right and one wrong, you’re still going to the chopping block! This ain't no half-baked operation we’re running here!”

“I… See…” Kujou jotted down some more notes into her notepad.

I looked around to the group. “Well… if we have to solve two murders… we should… probably… start somewhere… right?”

“Well, here’s what I think.” Amaterasu began. “Whoever was in Michizoe and Matsushita’s bodies were innocent!”

“That was me.” I said. “As well as someone else.”

“I retract my statement.” Amaterasu sneered. “They’re probably super suspicious.”

“What?” Yukimura looked over at Amaterasu. “H-How are they… s-suspicious?”

“Well!” Amaterasu looked. “They were in the bodies before they were ripped, right? So after we jumped out of ours, they went up to the hospital for something!”

“No!” I shouted at her. “That's wrong! Me and Heisuke can prove that! Isn’t that right Heisuke?”

“Hm?” Heisuke looked up from cleaning his nails. “What was that?”

I looked at him with a bemused expression. “...were you even paying attention?”   
  
Heisuke looked like a deer in headlights. “Uuuhhhhhhhh…”

“What you saw, Heisuke.” 

“Oh yeah! Right!” Heisuke straightened himself out. “Yeah, I saw them go up late there, before the body swap.”

“...Ok, fine.” Amaterasu didn’t look happy. “Me and Daishin both went up there… but just to talk! Ok!”

Daishin looked towards Amaterasu and looked a little dejected. “Why did you have to bring me into this…”

“You were going to… talk?” Otaka tried to wheel his way into his position, but it was a little inconvenient for him.

“Yeah…” Daishin scratched the back of his neck. “We were going to talk, and that's it. Nothing else happened, and we went in without anything, so that's that.”

I turned to look at him. “What about the hammer though?”

Daishin looked puzzled. “The Hammer?”

Amaterasu slammed her hand against the podium. “Oh come on! Don’t be a dumbass! Matsushita died of blunt force trauma! And a hammer fits that pretty well, don’t you think?”

“What about… that iron pipe though?” I put my finger to my chin. “We found it all bloody, wouldn’t it be more reasonable for that to be the murder weapon? The thing with a ton of blood on it?”

“She would be correct” Homura agreed with my statement. “It would make more sense. Did you find any blood on the hammer?”

“From what I saw…” Amai tried remembering the scene in his head. “It wasn’t anything much except the excess blood from the murders getting on the bottoms…”

“Then its decided dudes!” Teruachi put his hands on his hips. “The Pipe is the murder weapon! But… I think… Doesn’t that mean that they were involved?”

“What do you mean?” I looked at Teruachi.”

“Well, I can really only think of one reason that they would go up there, and that's planning murder!”

“Really?” I asked. “Would it really make the most sense?”

“Aw man…” Teruachi looked dejected. “Now you got me all second guessing myself and stuff… I don’t know man! Murder never makes sense!”

“Do you mean, the chipped wall, Waruki?” Kujou put her pencil to her mouth. “That’s been bugging me too… I always thought it looked a little more damaged…”

“M-Maybe… They were trying to break it?” Yukimura bit her thumb.

“...Yeah! Nicely done, Yukimura!” Daishin gave her a big smile. “That's exactly right!”

“Daishin! Don’t just say that! We could get in trouble!” Amaterasu hissed at him.

“Huh?” The Overseer looked on at them. “Trouble? For breaking that measly thing? No, you would be doing me a favor!”

“Why is that?” I asked it.

“Well, Whites.” It looked at me. “Ill tell you after the trial, granted you’re all still alive, alright? Alright. Now, get back to work!”

Homura turned towards the two. “Alright, lets hear an explanation then, from both of you.”

“Alright. Ill begin.” Amaterasu did not look all too pleased about having to explain her story. “We went up there to try and bust that wall. We figured if we could, then we might be able to  escape… but then… we… switched out.”

“You… switched out?” Otaka looked at both of them, confused. “Why did you switch out?”

Daishin shrugged and gave a pitiful grin. “I dunno. All I know is that I was keeping watch while Amaterasu was there with the hammer, and the next thing we know we’re in someone else’s bodies again.”

“That m-must have b-b-been when Waruki was… p-put in the b-bodies!”

Amai shook his head. “Well, who’s fault is that then? Its your guys’ fault! You shouldn’t have gone to the hospital that close to the time limit!”

I pulled a folded up piece of paper out of my pocket. “Hold on Amai, this paper right here says that they didn’t. They went much, much earlier, according to this note”

“Ah yeah… that's the note Michizoe gave me…” Amaterasu seemed a little down, lost in thought.

“Haha, yeah, really messed up that one.” Daishin gave a big doofy grin. “I forgot about the motive, so I just put it in Amaterasu’s room instead! Hah, Its a good thing that Michizoe returned it, or I’d be in some pretty hot water, huh?"

"Can..." Amaterasu looked at him, disgusted. "Can you... like... not do that, during a murder trial?"

I looked down at the paper. “...anyways… It says here that they met up at around 1, despite that, you will all remember that it swaps at three, correct?”

“Yeah… that is strange…” Otaka was wheeling himself back and forth in thought. “Wouldn’t they be aware that they were going to switch…?”

Daishin shook his head. “Nope, we were switched out an hour in. Not really sure what happened there. Nothing happened to the clocks, and we were watching them to make sure.”

Amaterasu Nodded. “Then… around… two I think? We got swapped out. We figured that we just didn’t remember the hour but…”

I pondered their words. “No… that's wrong. The clock was changed… a little bit. There was a sun symbol on there now… for some reason.”

“Is that all that was different about it?” Homura asked me.

“Yes.” I responded.

“Don’t y-y-you think that… d-doesn’t really matter?” Yukimura asked me.

“Yeah… Gotta agree with her there, Waruki” Daishin asked. “Its probably just that we didn’t remember the last hour.”

Something about that sentence caught my brain into a thinking process... can't remember the last hour… a sun symbol… wait, wasn’t that clock foreign? And if it was connected to the internet…

“I got it!” I shouted.

“Huh?” Kujou looked up to me. “What do you think?”

I put my hands down onto the witness stand I was in front of. “You didn’t remember the last hour not because of any memory problems, but because that hour **never existed in the first place."**

“Wh-what!?” Yukimura was looking on at me in shock. “What… what even is that?”

“In some foreign parts of the world, they have a period of time where they put their clocks forward because of how the sun is positioned, in order to keep time in check. I believe that's what happened here. The clock went from 1:59 to 3:00”

“Wait!” Amai shouted out. “Three o clock! That's…!”

“The deadline to swap.” Homura nodded. “So, that's what happened. They didn’t even know they were going to swap, but as luck would have it, they did.”

“Hah…” Daishin chuckled to himself a little. “I guess that puts me and Amaterasu off the hook, huh?”

Kujou erased something from her journal. “Yeah… I guess it does…”

Teruachi shook his head. “Dudes… that's great and all that if I know not to vote for either… but like… its still a ⅛ chance of not dying…”

I looked back up at him. “Oh come now, Its a 1/7, since i'm clearly not the culprit. I was the one who was murdered.”

“You’re forgetting” Yukimura grabbed at her jacket’s collar. “W-we need to vote… f-for… both of them…”

“That's right…” Kujou flipped to a new page in her journal. “Alright, well, lets start with… hmm… how about… who died first?”

“It was pretty clearly Matsushita, right?” Amai asked.

Teruachi looked at him. “What makes you say that, Kichi-chi?”

Amai looked down, closing his eyes. “So here’s how I see this, He had a hit on the back of the head, right?”

Amaterasu looked at him. “I think I see where this is going, since I was at the crack in the wall, further away from the door, and Daishin, in Matsushita’s body, was keeping guard…”

Amai snapped his fingers. “That's right! So they knocked the body of Matsushita in the back of the head, got past him, and took out Michizoe!”

“Is that really what happened though?” I asked Amai. “There’s something odd about the crime scene that suggests otherwise.”

“Hm? What do you mean?” Amai looked over and down at me.

"Well, Matsushita’s body was slumped over Michizoe’s, and it didn’t look like it was dragged from anywhere… so Michizoe would have had to go down first, and then Matsushita…”

“But…” Otaka was biting at his thumb. “They would still need to get past Matsushita to do that… unless…”

I nodded my head. “The person who killed me, and therefore Michizoe, was whoever was in the body of Ryota Matsushita.”

“Homura stared at me, before staring down everyone else. “Is… that true?”  
  
I nodded. “Yes, it is.”   
  
“Hold on…” Teruachi had his fingers pressed to his temples. “Alright, dude, maybe i'm just bad at visualizing this, since like, i'm blind and all, but… do you have any other evidence that it was him who took out Michizoe? Like, my dude, that's a bit shaky…”

“I… think so?” I asked. “I mean, his clothes and hand were pretty bloody, usually that kind of blood only happens if you slice something like a neck…”

Teruachi put his hands over his face. “Aaah… yeah… I guess that makes sense…”

I smiled. “I'm glad it does. Now, can we move on?”

“Alright, but what are we moving on to?” Otaka asked us.

“It… w-w-would… p-probably be… th-the other c-c-culprit…” Yukimura said.

“That is…” Amai lead off with. “...If there even is a second culprit.”

“Huh?” I looked at him.

“Yeah…” he began. “With the head injury, its probably not likely, but i'm just saying, with our luck, we would vote for someone when whoever was in Matsushita’s body would have ended up just trying to smash their head in.”

“That would still mean there’s a second culprit…” Teruachi said.

“Well, sure, but there’s not really any good proof someone else was there, so you have to take into account that its possible it was just Waruki and someone else up there!”

“No…” I looked towards Amai. “No… I think you’re mistaken. Its not your fault though, you wouldn’t know, but the body discovery announcement went off at different times…”

Kujou thumbed through her book. “If the body discovery announcement plays when 3 people find a body, and they were in the same place… they should have gone off at the same time.

“M-Maybe… there was another person, who saw? I mean… that's… h-how it was in K-Kazehaya’s case…”

“Yeah!” I shouted out. “I agree!”

“Eeep!” Yukimura jumped from her position.

“Ah… I'm sorry to yell Yukimura, but you’re right. If there was a third person there, then I think… they would have counted as the first person to discover Michizoe’s body.”

Heisuke cut in “So its proven then. There was a third party at the crime scene. This third party likely saw Matsushita over Michizoe’s dead body, and attacked him.”

Homura pulled the brim of her hat below her eyes. “What a very astute observation. That is what I believe to be correct as well.”

“So…” Otaka thought. “I think… that… would make Daishin the Culprit.”

“Wh-what?”  Daishin stepped back.

Otaka looked at him a little cross. “You were the only one who knew what was going on… and the swaps aren’t co-ed… so you had to be the third party!”

Daishin looked panicked. It was uncommon to see him this worked up. “C-Come on man, that's just a theory!”

Otaka shook his head. “No, there’s no way anyone else would be able to know.”

"Now hold on Otaka.” I said. “I think there’s a way that someone else would know.”

Otaka looked at me with a wide eyed blank look on his face. I continued to explain. “Michizoe already knew as well… and according to Kujou…”

“Hm? Oh Yeah!” Kujou looked up from her book. “I found Waruki passed out in the hallway, but I wasn’t sure why… until now. If Waruki was swapped with Michizoe, then the opposite is also true.”

“So…” Teruachi scratched at his hair. “Michizoe… went to someone’s door… and told them about the situation?”

Kujou nodded. “That's right.”

Otaka looked a little embarrassed. “Well… it still could have been Daishin… there’s not really anything that can prove otherwise, right?”

Heisuke sighed. “Come on man, you know what happens when you say stuff like that, it just means for sure that there is something that proves it.”

“Yeaaaaahhhh...  I gotta agree with Heisuke. There’s something that I think proves who was there. Matsushita’s murder weapon.”

Yukimura had her eyes closed, trying to piece things together. “Wait… A-Are you suggesting…?”

I nodded. “That's right. The third party was none other than Matsushita himself… I think. I mean, he’s really the only person who would immediately think to go get a pipe in a situation like that. Aside from me, He was the only one who knew about the pipes laying around…”

“Yeesh.” Amai covered his face. “So in the end, he was hitting himself over the head?”

Homura was solemn. “Yes… he was likely killing himself in order to destroy the killer…”

We all looked over at Matsushita’s portrait. His Happy self, his firey hair, it was taken from us. The one who took it from us… was himself. It was hard to believe at first, but that was the only other thing that could have happened. I couldn’t even begin to think about what Matsushita must have been going through, to make that kind of self-sacrificial decision. And in the end… for it to be meaningless… it didn’t feel right.

“In his mind.” Amaterasu said. “He was trying to do what was right. He was trying to apprehend the killer. He never was the brightest, but you have to admire his attitude.”

“But… Who was the k-killer?” Yukimura said.

Teruachi was thinking. “Lets see… they probably would have switched to the correct body after that, right dudes? So then they left… would there be any evidence anywhere else?”

“Hold on, Teruachi.” I called for him to stop. “Something’s been bugging me.”

“Hm?” Teruachi turned his head towards me. “Whats that?”

“Well…” I began. “The reader for the total visitors read that there were 12 visitors that day”

Heisuke put his hands to his chin. “There were 12 of us still alive, well, before Michizoe and Matsushita ended up dying.”

I closed my eyes in thought. “But the reader is based off of when people walk through the door… so…”

Otaka began to finish my sentence. “If someone left, and then came back at the body discovery… then… the counter would have read 13… not 12.”

Teruachi picked at his bandages. “Wait.. what… does that mean, then?”

I gave off a bit of a giggle, pathetically, and surprised we managed to work this out. “What i'm trying to say is, the killer never left the hospital in the first place.”

Yukimura pulled her hat off of her head and squeezed it. “S-So… the k-killer was in the h-h-hospital the entire time…”

Amai seemed a little dissatisfied with this conclusion. “What? I don’t think that's possible. I mean, there’s not really anywhere for them to hide, right? We would have seen them! Maybe the counter just didn’t pick up the same person twice…”

“What about the Changing room?” I asked. “There was blood there, so someone was clearly there… and its outside there that we found the murder weapon.”

Homura hit her hands down on her stand. “Why would they think to go there though?”

“Of course… probably to wash their hands? I imagine that their hands would be pretty bloody…”

“But…” Teruachi said. He seemed to be a little down. “The sink was broken, right? So they wouldn't have been able to wash their hands…”

Kujou was frantically writing things down. “But we uhm… would have noticed if someone was bloody, right?”

Suddenly, everything was piecing together. God! Why didn’t I figure it out sooner! I thought it was suspicious but… could that person really be the killer?

“I know who the killer is.” I said, with conviction in my words.

“Wh-what?” Yukimura looked at me with bugged eyes.

Amaterasu gripped her stand tight. “How… do you know… something like that?”

I sighed. “Well, we know that the killer didn’t leave. And that they tried to wash the blood off of their hands but failed to do so. So they would have had to hide that their hands were bloody somehow. There was one person who’s hands were bloody, but me and Heisuke were deceived about the reason why they were bloody.”

Heisuke looked up, shocked towards me. “You… You don’t mean…”

I nodded, before turning towards the culprit. “Yeah. I do mean it. Teruachi, you’re the one who killed Michizoe, aren’t you?”

Amai immediately jumped to Teruachi’s defense. “N-now hold on! That doesn’t make a wh-whole lot of sense!”

I looked up. “What do you mean?”

Amai had a pouty, desperate look on his face. “Come on! Why on earth wouldn’t Teruachi just run?”

Kujou looked up at him. “You know… you aren’t the one being accused here.”

Amai fired back. “He’s still important to me! I can’t just sit back as you falsely accuse him!”

Teruachi giggled. “You’re real sweet, you know that, right Kichi-chi?”

I looked towards Amai. “Anyone could see that the sink was broken, Ill give you that, but…”

Heisuke seemed to get where I was going “...But that's exactly the problem.”

I closed my eyes. “Teruachi probably didn’t notice that there wasn’t any water coming out til he tried turning the knob.”

Teruachi seemed a little distraught. “Th-That's a little bit absurd dude!”

Otaka was the next to speak up. “And we all came up when Kujou woke us up...he… definitely would have been spotted…”

Amai was starting to get upset as well. “C-Come on! That's only circumstantial! It could be right, but it also could be wrong!”

“Yeah!” Teruachi shouted. “Did you forget i'm blind? How would I even be able to find some ice pick and kill her dude? Its Impossible!”

The entire room went silent. Painfully silent. Everyone just craned their heads towards him.

“Hey… dudes…” Teruachi rubbed the back of his head. “Its… real quiet… did I say something wrong?”

I looked over at him. “Hey… you just said… ice pick… right?”

Teruachi scoweled. “...Yeah? And? You do know that's the murder weapon dude, we’ve been kinda talking about Michizoe’s murder for a while now…”

Kujou looked up at him. “But… Nobody ever said…”

I had a more intense look on my face. “How did you know that the weapon was an ice pick, Teruachi? You’re blind! There’s no way you could have seen it!”

Teruachi went ghost white. "Y-You didn't? Dude's... I..."

“I told him!” Amai shouted. “During the investigation we were comparing! And I told him!”

Yukimura smiled. “Ah… Th-that… makes sense…”

Daishin sighed in releif. “I thought Teruachi had just admitted it… honestly… i'm kind of glad…”

No, there was no way that they were falling for Amai’s obvious lie. They were though. Were they really that naive? Or maybe… they just didn’t want to believe. They were trying to grasp for any straw that would mean that their friend wasn’t a murderer.

“Besides…” Amai said. “You said it yourself, Waruki. Kazuhi-chi is blind… its kind of hard for a blind person to kill someone…”

“Yeah!” Teruachi shouted. “I couldn’t see anything. How was I supposed to do something like that? I'm honestly kind of offended its me.”

“You’re so mean, Waruki!” I could feel Amai hit me in the back of the head. Oh, that bastard. “You need to Apologize to Kazuhi-chi immediately!”

“Don’t touch me!” I shouted at him. “Teruachi is the culprit! I know it! Its the only thing that makes sense!”

“Prove it then!” Amai said, solemnly. “Prove how Teruachi could have killed him when he can't even see!”

“When I was swapped…” Otaka began. “I was still able to walk… but with a bit of difficulty… because the other had working legs…”

Teruachi raised his fringe to reveal an ashy white eye. “I’ve been blind since birth… so while Otaka used to have working legs, I’ve never really had any functioning eyes. That's why whoever was swapping with me didn’t see anything either…”

Kujou bput her pencil to her mouth. “That is… a pretty good explanation… Do you see anything wrong with it, Waruki?”

I thought about it for a second. There was something wrong with that, but I couldn’t just place what. He was right, it would be pretty hard to stab and slash someone without being able to see… so maybe… Wait. The swap... right... thats not how that swap worked at all!

“What… if he could see?”

Teruachi groaned. “Come on, Waruki, dude. We already went over this. Even with the swap, I couldn’t have seen.  
  
I shook my head. “No, You’ve been lying to us this entire time. You could see this entire time, right?”

Teruachi looked shocked. Hah, that must have hit the mark. “Wh-what… that's… e-entirely baseless, dude! What makes y-you think that?”

I slammed my hands down on my stand. It was time to end this. “With the body swap, the info **gets sent directly to your brain.** Not your eyes. In order to move, Otaka would have to actually send it to his legs, but the thought center for sight isn’t in your eyes, its in your brain. So long as whoever you were swapped with had working eyes, You could see clearly! THAT is how you were able to kill!”

“I…” Teruachi was panicked, he craned his head back and forth. “I-I'm innocent! I swear! I-I was blind that entire time dude!”

Amai looked at him, coldly. “Kazuhi-chi…”

“I…” He looked down. “I'm sorry… Kichi-chi… I can't… keep this up… anymore…”

“Is that an admission of guilt?” Homura asked.

“Right…” I said. “I think… I know… everything now.”

 

**_“Heres everything that happened in this case!”_ **

  


_The entire incident started when Amaterasu and Daishin came up with a plan to break out, meeting up late at night to try and stealthily chip away at the wall. The note passed between then called for them to meet up on the third floor at 1am, to not be seen by anyone and cause an issue. However, Since it was left at Michizoe’s room, when she went back to retrieve her stuff while in Amaterasu’s body, she saw it. Amaterasu wasn’t worried, but told her to keep quiet about it. A couple minutes before 1am, they snuck away, still in Michizoe and Matsushita’s bodies. If it weren’t for Heisuke seeing them, they might have snuck away unnoticed. While they were there, they went to work. Amaterasu, as Michizoe, would whack at the damaged wall with a mallet they got out of the storage warehouse while Daishin, as Matsushita, would keep watch. However, when the time reached 1:59, they were swapped out as they were working, due to the clocks running the switching as well as the electric clock on the floor going forward an hour due to daylight savings. From 1:59am it became 3:00am, the “middle of the night” time limit for switching. During this time, the culprit swapped out with Daishin, and I swapped out with Amaterasu._

 

_After the switch, The culprit, as Matsushita. Saw me as Michizoe holding a mallet. Normally, they wouldn’t see, but because of how the swap worked, they were granted the gift of sight. They immediately assumed the worst as they grabbed the broken ice pick off of the medical tray and stabbed me as Michizoe in the neck. However, during this, Michizoe, as me, found their way to the culprits dorm room, remembering the meetup note from earlier and fearing the worst. Its there that they saw Matsushita, in the Culprit’s body. Hearing about Michizoe’s worries of the unexpected switch, they ran towards the infirmary and deduced that a murder had taken place from the sounds of the struggle. He most likely heard his own voice. It must have been hard for Matsushita, but he made a completely selfless choice. He took the pipe that he had grabbed on his way in, and started swinging, trying to end the culprit, and his own, life. After the impact, Matsushita lied there, dead, while the original culprit returned to his own body, due to the motive ending._

 

_The culprit immediately ran out of the room, dropping the lead pipe behind the reception desk. They went to the changing room to try and wash the blood of of themselves when they failed to notice that there was no water running due to the pipe that Matsushita had taken out, getting blood on both the door handle and the faucet knobs. Desperate, they had to run back out of the room and figure out a different way to clean themselves. Before the culprit could leave however, they heard me coming, as I had tried to return to the scene of the crime to apprehend the culprit. Panicking, they waited, hiding in the changing room, and hiding their hands until after the Seerfiles were revealed to “find” the supposed murder weapon as lie to explain why their hands were bloody. Unfortunately, they never left the crime scene, and thus, the discrepancy in the “total visitors” count is what ended up telling truth in their lie._

 

_A Lie made up by none other than the **SHSL Sculptor, Kazuhiko Teruachi!** _

 

I breathed out. “That is what I have come up with.”

“N-No!” Amai was shouting out. “Y-You can’t be serious! There has to be a problem!”

“Its fine, Kichi-chi…” Teruachi said. “I accept it. There’s nothing I can do about it now.”

“So… I-Its true?” Yukimura asked.   
  
“Were you really the one who killed Michizoe?” Asked Daishin.

Teruachi nodded. “Yeah… that's right…”

“So…” Kujou flipped back about 20 pages in her notebook. “All that about being blind during the motive…”

Teruachi laughed, painfully. “Yep, you got me. That was a lie.”

“A-A Lie?” Otaka wheeled himself towards him. “Wh-Why?”

Teruachi shrugged. “I like my life. I wouldn’t do anything to change it. Besides, I didn’t want most of you to treat me differently. I'm content the way you are.

“Wait…” I asked. “What do you mean by, most?”

“Hey…” Teruachi’s voice got eerily serious. “Before we get carried away. I want to Guarantee all of your safety. Please, vote.”

Upon Teruachi’s request that was more like a command we all voted. We knew in our hearts the correct answer.

“Well then!” The Overseer shouted. “Lets see here! I thiiiiinnnkkkk, you’ve got it all right! The Killer’s this time were Ryota Matsushita for the murder of Ryota Matsushita, and Kazuhiko Teruachi for the murder of Eiko Michizoe! Congratulations! You live to see another day!”

“So…” Heisuke said, depressingly. “That's it, then, huh? Its over.”

“Yeah…” Homura remarked. “It is…”

“But…! This means that Kazuhi-chi Isn’t a killer, it was s-self defense, right? Right??”

The Overseer buzzed. “Sorry Mai Man! But Waruki never had any killing intent in the first place! Besides, even if she did, its not like that would have spared Teruachi for whats coming!"

"Whats… Coming…” Amai’s face looked cold. He knew what was going to happen in a couple minutes, but didn’t want to have to face it.

“I'm…” Teruachi looked away. Not that he could see in the first place, but its possible that he didn’t want us to see his face. “I'm sorry, I… I was still… getting used… to seeing… again... “

“Hm? What do you mean by again?” I asked.

“I was born blind in one eye, but, I accidentally lost the other one, dude. For the past 5 years, I haven’t been able to see at all.”

“But…” Amai began again. “Th-that didn’t matter… to me… You couldn’t see… but… you still knew what I looked like. You could still feel what I felt like, hear… what I sounded like.”

Teruachi smiled. “And i'm glad I did, Kichi-chi. I only got to look at you for two days… but…” Tears started flowing down Teruachi’s face. “You’re more beautiful than I could have ever imagined…”

Amai turned his back to all of us. He didn’t say a word. Not to me, not to Homura, not to Teruachi. Eventually, after a long period of silence. He spoke.

“I… L-Love you, Kazuhi-chi…” We could hear a large sigh, followed by sobbings coming from Amai. “Go… Just… go… its… its useless!”

“Huh? Kichi-chi?” Teruachi was taken aback.

“W-We all know y-y-you’re gonna die anyways! So just go! You’re making this so painful! For both of us? _How can you just sit there calmly when you’re going to die_!?”

“Amai!” Called out Homura. “Please stay calm!”

“Fuck you! I am calm!” Amai shouted, clearly not calm. “Maybe you all never got close to him, but I did! I don’t want to see him die, but I have to! None of you know the gravity of the suffering we’re both going through!”

“Kichi-chi…” A voice cut through the shouting, like a blade in the fog. “I understand, please, calm down.”

Teruachi walked up to him. “I know you’re upset, but please, dude, don’t take it out on other people. I love you too.”

“K-Kazuhi-chi?”

“Well now!” The Overseer shouted. “This seems like the right time! How about it folks!

“Like… anything we say will stop you…” Otaka Remarked.

Teruachi embraced Amai, speaking to him. “I want you to remember me, when i'm gone, ok?” We could see Tears drip from under Teruachi’s hair.

“Now then! I’ve prepared a very special punishment for Kazuhiko Teruachi, the SHSL Sculptor!”

Amai sniveled. “Y-you say that… but… how am I supposed to accept this? I don’t want you taken from me! You don’t deserve this! None of us deserve this!

“Lets give it everything we’ve got!”

A Metal chain hooked around Teruachi’s neck. “Keep me in your heart. Don’t forget the time we have together, alright? You don’t have to accept this now, but in time, you will understand. The world is a tricky place, dude. You don’t fully appreciate a moment til its long past. When its become a memory…”

“Iiiiiiiiiiits punishment time!”

Amai let go of Teruachi “Kazuhi-chi… I wont… forget you…”

 

 **KAZUHIKO TERUACHI HAS BEEN FOUND GUILTY** ****  
**  
** **TIME FOR THE PUNISHMENT!**

_ _

_Teruachi was in the middle of an art exhibit. He was stuck in what looked like a giant block of ice. People of all kinds started walking past him. He had a look of panic. Hwas visibly trying to thrash against his confines but he couldn’t move at all. He could barely move an inch as he attempted to go against his icy confines. From outside, coming into shot, sculptors of all kinds lined themselves. Chisels, Chainsaws, and Cutters, they all were ready to get a piece of Teruachi._

 

**_AN EVERYDAY ARTIST'S SLICE OF LIFE: CAN HE MAKE THE CUT?_ **

 

_One by one, Each of the artists took a swing at the large block of ice that imprisoned Teruachi. Taking off chunks of the ice little by little, piece by piece. Slowly, ever so slowly, making themselves reach closer to Teruachi. Much like the process of sculpting itself. One wrong move and the piece would be ruined. One wrong move and he could be cut into- or worse._

 

_Teruachi’s beads of sweat turned to ice as the tools of cutting came closer and closer to his flesh. Inches turned to centimeters turned to mere millimeters away from his skin as the sculpted the block into a statue of himself. He had a little bit more wiggle room now, but that wiggle room would end up being his downfall as he moved right into the way of a blade. He could not scream as the blade dug its way into his arm. He just had to rely on the ice to numb it for him. The blades were starting to get a little too close for comfort now. A jab in the shoulder, a slice in the leg. Teruachi realized all too quickly that the blades would not stop carving their way inwards._

_  
_ _So, In an impulsive bid for freedom, he made a run for it. The Ice was thin enough for him to break through, but not without shattering like glass and sticking itself into his skin. He grit his teeth in pain. He wanted to cry, he wanted to scream out and drop in pain, but he knew he couldn’t. This was his chance. He could escape from this wretched killing game. Teruachi, blind and in pain, grabbed a wall and broke into a sprint._

_He didn’t know where he was going. He didn’t know where the exit was, he didn’t even know if there was an exit, but he ran. Bumping and colliding into all sorts of artwork and statues. He could not see, but he could hear the steps. The sculptors were coming after him. Blades in hand, they gave chase to him. He started running faster, but his progress was being impeded. Statues, walls, it was as if they were put in just the right spot for him to bump into them._

_Eventually however, it was all over. Teruachi reached a corner, and he turned, only to find that it was a dead end. An Exhibit with no exit. Teruachi was cornered. He had his back to the blades, all fixed on him as they approached. They came closer, and closer, as Teruachi let out a scream. In an instant, they all thrust towards him, and its all over._

 

Amai dropped to his knees. He didn’t say anything. This had been the third time we saw one of our friends be executed, but it didn’t hurt any less. He just sat there, trembling at his feet. None of us wanted to confront him, none of us could console him. We were all stuck there in shock of the brutal sight that unfolded before us.

“Yahoo!” The Overseer clapped. “Now that's what I call a finish! I'm gonna have to train those goons to be faster though… there’s not really any reason for them to have that much trouble catching a blind person.”

“SHUT UP!” Amai called out from where he had been kneeling. “”Just… Shut up! You’re horrible!”

“Am I now?” The Overseer questioned. “I’d say i'm doing the world a favour doing this.”

“No…” Homura pointed towards it. “You’re despicable! Nobody who traps people and makes them kill eachother is horrible!”

“Hey now…” The Overseer put its hands up. “If I wasn’t doing this, how do you all know you wouldn’t have died by now in some accident or other way you couldn’t help?”

“That's….” Heisuke had an unpleasant look on his face. “I mean, I guess its possible, but the chances of that are like… super low, right?”

“Yeah!” I shouted. “You’re orchestrating the whole thing! I bet you even put that crack in the wall to bait this kind of thing!”

The Overseer sighed. “I wish. In fact, I wish that crack didn’t exactly exist.”

“Wh-What?” Yukimura pulled her hat tighter down her head. “What do you mean? D-didn’t you make those?”

Amaterasu stepped her way closer to the front of the pack. “If you didn’t make it, then who did? None of us could have!”

“Ah...” The Overseer seemed reluctant. “Well… This person has been a bit of a thorn in my side for a while now… but I suppose I have no choice. Its none of you. It seems we have a bit of a stowaway somewhere in here.”

Daishin raised his eyebrows. “A… Stowaway?”

“Yes!” The Overseer shouted out. “You could call them the **17th student** if you will! Hiding somewhere in this facility!”

My blood ran cold. There was another person here? Why haven’t we seen them?

“Well, now that I just dropped that bombshell on you, I'm gonna be taking my leave now! Seeya!”   
  
Quick as fox, The Overseer and the throne shot into the floor and closed up. We looked around at each other. The 9 of us remaining… Wait… No. There were 8 of us. We hadn’t seen it, but Amai had silently made his way out of the trial room early. I suppose it only made sense. The poor guy had to have time to grieve.

“So…” Otaka began. “What… Should we do now?”

“What… time is it?” Kujou asked. “It… has to be at least 6 in the morning…”

“We should at least try to tough the rest of this day out.” Homura explained. “This doesn’t seem like the right place to have a ruined sleep schedule.”  
  
We all groggily left the trial room. I needed to return to my room. I wanted to pass out at that moment right there, but I knew that would just be betraying Homura’s words. Maybe some cold water would wake me up… No doubt there’s going to be some new areas to explore today…

 

…

 

I took the tape off of the wall and looked through the crack into the infirmary. The blinding lights still going into the hours of the morning. I had been really worried about this place being discovered when those two were trying to bust the wall down, but thankfully, they didn’t succeed.

No! I shouldn’t be saying Thankfully! Two people died! Well… there’s not much I could do now. I couldn’t go out, I couldn’t afford to let anyone see me. If anyone saw me, it would be over. I sat down on the pile of insulation and rags I called a bed. My stomach was starting to growl. I had forgotten to go sneak into the kitchen to stock up on food. I had made a secret entrance behind the cabinet in the infirmary, but the first time I set it up I accidentally knocked it over. I got lucky that nobody noticed the damage in the wall behind it.

I taped the wall back up so that nobody could look into my quarters. People probably have tried exploring the area. They should be finishing up that trial no. I needed to strike soon. I took out the school ID in my pocket. A Memento to remind me why I was doing this. I wish I could tell her what her talent was but… No. Not right now. One misstep and my life is over. I was going to survive. I had to… if not… then this won’t be the last mutual killing game.

**[CHAPTER 3 END]** ****  
**[SURVIVING STUDENTS: 9]** **  
** **[ >CONTINUE?]**


	17. Intermission: Nails In The Coffin

SA

 

S-A

 

The letters bounced off my tongue, I kept repeating them in my head. Shoujenjo Academy. Its a Co-ed academy, Its pretty basic honestly. I got here because I did fairly decently on my entrance exams, but not quite enough to get into the really fancy high class academies.

_***RRRING!!!*** _

That was the bell, it was time to go home. I put away the broom and dustpan I had, as I was part of today’s cleaning committee for the school. As I was walking out the door, I heard a radio sitting in one of the classrooms still playing.

“...amongst the 16 missing Hope's Peak Academy students is Olympic Athlete Muto Heisuke, World renowned actress Aika Kikuchi, as well as Hope's Peak Academy’s own Student Council President…”

It was just more news about the recent disappearances. I suppose its a good thing that I don’t have a Super High School Level talent. I'm just a normal high school student. Oh! I suppose I should introduce myself, huh?

My name is Ryouhei Satou, I go to Shoujenjo Academy. I'm nothing really special. I’d say that the only thing special about me is that Shoujenjo Academy is all the way across the city from my parents house, so they decided to have me rent a small townhouse. Its nothing special, it's only just a bit bigger than my bedroom back home, but it is nice to have my own space I can call mine.

Aside from that though, I'm not really any special, unlike my best friend, Kimiko Waruki. Me and Kimiko had been friends since childhood, but… now with the disappearances… and to think I was so excited to find out that she was accepted into Hope's Peak Academy as the **Super High School Level Test Subject,** But now… with her having disappeared along with the rest of them…

I felt wind blow against my back as a swarm of police cars drove past me. Oh no… they were heading in the direction of my house. I liked to think of my neighbourhood as being pretty average. No trouble really happens except for the occasional tussle between two alley cats. I quickened my pace, clutching my bag behind my shoulder.

As I got closer and closer though, I could see that they were parked around my shoddy little home. I turned into a full sprint now. Great, did someone break in? But… as I got there… The cops slowly turned towards me. Their faces were contorted in disgust and one looked like they were going to be sick. Something had definitely happened. As I approached though, one of the police officers harshly called out towards me.

“Ryouhei Satou! You are under arrest on 16 counts of murder, Please put your hands behind your back, anything you say can and w- hey!”

No, this wasn’t true, I pulled away from the officer that grabbed me and ran into the building. The sight that was before me could only be described as nauseating.

I counted 16 bloody, burned, crushed, or otherwise murdered corpses in my house. There was one with a blue turtleneck and a fedora, while another had pink hair and was wearing goggles. Where did these come from? I know I hadn’t murdered anybody, between tests I wouldn’t have had time. So where… Amidst the carnage, I saw a body with a blue shirt and white hair.

“K-Kimiko!”

I rushed towards her, She had a large stab wound directly in her stomach, and her eyes were lifeless. Tears fell down out of my eyes and onto her as I kept trying to call out her name. Maybe she was still hanging on to life, maybe whoever did this had done it recently, but there was no response. Her limbs felt stiff and her skin felt cold. Was I… too late?

I felt a large, intense, visceral shock pulse through my entire body. I barely had enough time to turn around to see the officer holding the taser, and the wires that connected it to my side. I let out a primal scream as I fell to the floor, splashing against blood and getting all my clothes dirty. The next couple moments were a blur. I tried to get away, but I felt the multitude of hands put my arms behind my back and cuff me. Everything was just happening so quickly. What was this? Who did this? Who killed Kimiko? Who killed all these people, and why… why did they drag me into this? Why did they use my house?

 

Why…

  
  
  


Is this…

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Happening…?

  
  
  
  


I felt myself lose consciousness.

  
**[INTERMISSION: END]** ****  
**[SURVIVING STUDENTS: ??]** **  
** **[ >CONTINUE?]**


	18. Chapter 4: Double Or Nothing (Daily Life Pt. 1)

There wasn’t much that I could say about the events of the past night. Normally I would talk about how I couldn’t sleep; I guess that was true; or how nobody felt very good after witnessing the horrors of last night. I mean, who would? This time… it was different though. The other times happened during the day, but this time it happened in the middle of the night. We didn’t get out of the trial room til at least 6 in the morning. By all means, I was mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted. I returned to my room. I remember Homura… or was it Kujou... ? Heisuke? Someone mentioned staying up so that we didn’t ruin our sleep schedules. I really wanted to. In any normal situation, I would have taken the precautions to keep myself healthy and robust… but… 7 of our friends were now dead… there was a risk of more succumbing… and there still wasn’t any sign of escape. 

As such, as soon as I got to my room, I locked eyes with my bed and passed out.

 

**CHAPTER 4: DOUBLE OR NOTHING: DAILY LIFE**

 

I woke up with a bit of a headache to myself. It took me a couple moments of grogginess to remember the situation that we were in. We had been trapped in this facility for at least 2 weeks now, I would imagine. If I was wrong the only reason would be that I hadn't been keeping track. In such a deadly situation as this it was hard to keep track of days. They all just meshed together as our numbers dwindled and dwindled. I rubbed my eyes as the memories and realizations of the situation came back into my mind. Damnit. I was thankfully still alive, but I wasn't sure how much longer we were going to be able to take this. 

I looked over at the small clock on my nightstand. 12:07pm. Noon. Well, 6 hours of sleep is better than none. I reluctantly got out of my bed. This was starting to become a pattern. I didn't like this pattern. Someone would die, and we would have to just wake up and continue the cycle like nothing happened. Who was it that was doing this to us? Why did they expect us to do this? Who did they think we were? We weren't soldiers who were used to battle. We weren't detectives who saw gruesome sights at a daily basis. High school students, we were high school students. Talented, gifted students. Even myself, even someone who did not remember why I was scouted by the school, I was special. 

So why… was this happening to me? Why was this happening to us? 

Why… that was the same question that bounced into my mind as I woke up. Thinking why as I washed up. Thinking why as I got dressed. Thinking why as I did my hair. Thinking why as I got out the door. The mood was somber… yet not quiet. The sounds of movement and activity lingered in the hallways… but there was no happiness or excitement to it. It was cold, and mechanical. It was the sounds of people in grieving, desperately clinging to a routine in an attempt to get the horrifying sight and despairing loss from the events of last night out of their minds.   
  


At the end of the hallway there was Otaka, still passed out in his wheelchair. Poor thing must have been even more exhausted than me. I wheeled Otaka into the cafeteria. Nobody was really talking, mostly just half-passed out at the tables, some lazily poking and prodding at cereals while others were very audibly snoring. By the time I had shuffled Otaka into a table, he seems to have already woken up.   


“A-ah… Good… morning Waruki…” Otaka said, lazily. “How… was your sleep?” 

I could tell he was trying to ignore the elephant in the room. I didn’t seen any reason why I shouldn’t play along. “Ah… it was alright… I’d say.”    
  
We both stared at eachother in silence. We both knew, but none of us wanted to say it. “Uuh… Otaka… do you want some breakfast?” 

“Ah…” He looked back up at me groggily. “Yeah… that… would be very nice of you Waruki… thanks…”

I nodded and walked off to the Kitchen. Before I walked in though, I could hear the sound of someone in there. Carefully, I peeked in only to see Amai. He was hunched over a counter and sobbing quietly to himself. I slowly walked in. “Hey… Amai… Are you alright?”

It took a couple seconds for him to muster up enough energy to look at me. “No. Go away.” 

 I couldn’t just leave Amai alone, so I took another step forward towards him. “Come on, I can’t just leave you alone.”  
  
“Oh!” Amai sharply turned towards me, anger amidst his tears. “Really? You left me alone when you got my boyfriend executed! Now you DON'T want me to be alone?”

“C’mon Amai… I…” I got cut off by him once again.

“Leave me alone! You’re the one who got Kazuhi-chi executed! You’re the one who did that! You!” Amai pointed towards me in an Accusatory Manner.    
  
I stood my ground. “Hey, Come on, I didn’t want to die any more than you did!” 

Amai took a step forward. “You… you maybe didn’t want to die, but…” I could see Amai tearing up again. “I… I… W-wouldn't have minded… if it meant… he would survive…”

“Amai…” I took a step forward, but he turned back from his sorrow to his anger

“Just go away!” He was trying to hide the image of his eyes tearing up from me. “Please, just, Go! I don't want to talk to you!” He pushed me up of the kitchen and slammed the door on me.

“Hey- Wait!” It was too late though. I tried opening it again but it seemed like he was holding it closed. “Amai! Open up! We still need to eat!” 

I still couldn't open the door, but it seemed like his grip on it was loosening. After a minute of struggle, I managed to get the door open, only for myself to be beaned with an orange. I faltered for a second, enough for Amai to be able to slam the door on me once again.

I rubbed my forehead where the impact was and bent down to grab the orange. It wasn't much, but I hoped that at least it would be able to feed Otaka. I walked over to him, only to notice he had dozed off again. I ruffled his hair a little bit to wake him up.

“Here.” I had peeled the orange for him and placed it in front of him. “I tried to get some more… but…”

As I was talking, I saw Kujou walk over and take a seat at our table. “Yeah… I saw you arguing with Amai… I guess we might have to find some other way to get food. Hey Otaka, can I have a slice?”

Otaka nodded, smiling towards her. “Sure thing!” 

I watched as Kujou popped a slice of orange into her mouth. “Well…” I said. “We… completed a trial… right?” The words felt sick In my mouth. I shouldn't be praising that another one of our friends died. “Could there maybe be food on the new floor?” 

Otaka nodded “Ah… uh… perhaps… should… we gather the others?” 

“Yeah…” Kujou got up from her chair. “I'll gather everyone, then we can take a look around the new floor. Does that… uuh… that sounds like a plan, right?” 

I got up too. “Yeah! That sounds about right. C’mon Otaka, I'm getting hungry!”

“Ah... you know you can have some of my- whaaah!”

 

I wheeled Otaka to the elevators and we both went up to the 4th floor. When we entered, we were greeted with a hallway, with a bend in the end. “Huh… this place seems strange… I wonder what it's for…”

“It's a little warm…” Otaka complained. “Why is it so warm?”

“Hmm…” we both went to the first door on our left. We were in a small room with a glass door. There was a dial on the wall here. “I think…”

“Oh!” Otaka cut me off. “This is a Sauna!” 

“A sauna?” I asked him. “Yeah… that makes sense… with how hot it is” 

“But…” Otaka pointed to a dial in the barrier room. “This is strange… it looks like this is a mechanical Sauna.”

“Huh?” I looked at the dial. Geez, I never knew how hot Sauna’s could be until now. “As opposed to what?”

Otaka seemed to be very glad about speaking about this kind of things. “Well normally you have hot rocks or coals that you pour water on… and uuh… the steam from the water evaporating is what heats up the sauna… but…” Otaka looked in. “There isn't any of that, so I guess the dial is how it's powered… which uh… makes sense… some people like cooler sauna’s…”

“Yeah! I guess so! It would be good to relax in here sometime, you know?” I pushed the door inwards to open it up. Suddenly, a rush of heat overcame my body. “Ghaah!” I closed the door. 

“Maybe we can relax… another time. Usually you don't go in with all uuh… all your clothes…” Otaka seemed to be trying to word it in the most PG Way possible. 

“Y-yeah…” holy cow that was hot! 

 “Alright…” Otaka said. “Maybe we should move on…”  
  


“Okay…” we both left the room before the sauna. The next room was still warm, but had laundry machines lining the walls, as well as baskets.    
  
“Oh!” I called out. “Its a Laundry Room!”   
  
Someone else was in here. Yukimura and Daishin were investigating the laundry room as well.

“Ah! Waruki! Otaka! Hello!” Daishin called out to us. “How are you two?”

The two must have came here while we were investigating the Sauna. Daishin, despite everything that had happened, was still his chipper old self. It was honesty kind of impressive how he could keep his smile when nobody else could. Yukimura however… looked very worse for wear. She was clearly tired, and looked as if she had been crying the night before as well. 

“Hey… Yukimura… are you alright?” I walked over to ask her while Daishin was showing Otaka the washers and dryers.

“Eh? Oh… uuh… k-kinda… I mean…” she started looking away while she said her words.

I have Yukimura a light hug. “It's alright… I understand… I had a bit of a rough night too…”

Yukimura smiled lightly at me. “Thanks… Waruki.”

I smiled back at her. “Don't mention it. Now… what have you found in this room, aside from the machines, if you don't mind?”

“Ah!” Yukimura pointed to the baskets. They had little wheels on them. “Well… these are for u-uhm… moving a l-lot… lot… a l-lot of clo-lothes at once…”

Yukimura sighed. “I'm S-sorry… it's just… so w-warm in here…”

“Ah!” I had a feeling I knew why. “That's because the laundry room is right next to the sauna, right?” 

“Ah… th-there's a Sauna?” Yukimura pulled at we clothes. “That… makes sense then… why th-this room would be S-so warm…”

“What else is there?” I asked her,

“Uh… there's a S-signup sheet by the Machines… you write your name on it with the pencil… t-to say wh-what machine y-y-your clothes are in…”

I looked over. There was a clipboard with papers nailed to the wall, and a pencil with a string tied to the top. That was handy I supposed.

“Is that all?” I looked around. The room was pretty barren.

“Y-yeah… I think…” Yukimura sat on the edge of one of the large laundry baskets. “That's… really it…”

“That's ok. I'll have to wait a bit to wash my clothes!” I hadn't realized it, but the ones I had were getting kinda gross. I wish they at least gave us something else other than a single outfit. 

“B-but… Waruki…” Yukimura stepped a little closer to me. “Th-there's something else… worrying me.”

“Huh? What's that?” I asked her.

“What Th-The Overseer said… about… someone else… creeping around here…”

I sighed, I could see that the idea was scaring Yukimura. “Don't worry about it, alright? It's probably just to try and scare you.”

“B-but… I know someone's here!” Yukimura seemed to grow paler

“Huh? Why do you figure that?”

“I… I c-couldn't sleep… s-so I tried walking around… and then… I w-went to the kitchen… and… I saw…” Yukimura stopped herself. 

“H-hey, what's wrong, what did you see?” I was really worried for her now. 

“It uuh… it's n-nothing… I just… I know it wasn't you…”

“It… wasn't me?” I asked her

“It wasn't anybody!” She quickly shouted out in a panic. “Someone was getting food! I went to go get Homura but when we got back… she was gone…”

“How do you know it was a girl?” I asked her, curious.

Yukimura stayed silent for a couple moments, but then… “I'm sorry! I really need to go!” She bolted out of the room. 

 

Daishin turned to us. “Whoa-hoah! What happened there?”

“I… I don't know” I responded.

Daishin just giggled. “She probably is just going to the bathroom, I wouldn't worry about it…”

“Are… are you sure?” I felt genuinely bad about potentially upsetting her.

“Yeah…” Daishin’s voice dropped. “She’s just like that sometimes, I figure.”  

I didn't respond. He was way too easy going about this, wasn't he? There's no way he couldn't hear our conversation, did he just not want to deal with the problem?

“Hey, Otaka,” I called out to him. “Do you wanna keep exploring?” 

Otaka shook his head. “Ah, no thanks! I'm fine here, uuh, thanks for asking though…” 

“Well… alright…” I could tell that he and Daishin were having a good conversation, before Yukimura’s outburst at least. From the sounds of it, they were discussing different kinds of trees. I was all alone now, but I was glad that they were able to still strengthen their bonds over circumstances like this. 

 

I left the laundry room and headed to the next and final room in this hallway. It had a large double door, making me think of a shop. I went through the doors to see that it was a clothing warehouse! Wow! There were a lot of clothes in here, from causal shirts to fancy suits and dresses. I was browsing through them all as Kujou came back to me.

“Ah! There you are.” She called out to me. “Have you had any luck finding some food?” 

“No…” I saw her browsing through some different hats. “But… there is a sauna and laundry room.”

“Well that's good!” She jotted it down in her notebook. “This seems to be some kind of floor for relaxation amenities.”

“Really?” I asked her. “I thought that's what the second floor was for.”

Kujou giggled. “Hah, yeah… nothing about doing laundry is relaxing I suppose… but that's more for artistic and athletic talents. I doubt you would see an SHSL Sauna Sitter.” 

“You never know!” I was embarrassed now, but it was still fine, if it was Kujou who was joking about it. “So… what else is here?”

Kujou flipped back a page. “Aside from that… there's also a series of 3 private studies down the hall. They're pretty well stationed, clearly academic minded.” 

“And this is a clothing shop?” I looked around. “It seems pretty big.” 

“I'm not sure…” Kujou pointed to the back. “The things I've seen over there don't look like clothes… why don't we go take a look?”

Both of us walked towards the back of the clothing shop when I felt a hand touch my shoulder. I looked behind to see a horrifying monster, with red eyes and sickly yellow teeth.

I let out a terrified scream and punched the monster in the chest. “Gh!” It fell over. I saw Heisuke painfully take the  mask off from his face. “Geez… you've got a nice jab…”

“Heisuke you asshole!” I shouted at him, “Don't scare me like that!”

Kujou tsk’ed at him. “It's not nice to scare an emotionally compromised girl…”

“Yeah! I-” I turned towards Kujou. “H-hey! I am not emotionally compromised!” 

“Nah…” Heisuke rubbed the back of his neck. “It's my bad, I shouldn't have scared you like that…” he looked around. “Seems this place is also a costume shop…” 

I browsed through the racks. Plague doctor's, animals, witches, it seemed this really was a costume shop. “Huh… I wonder why this would be here…?”

Heisuke put his monster costume back. “I don't know, I mean, it doesn't really have any purpose, but it's fun?”

Kujou agreed with him. “In a situation like this…” Kujou seemed to be very intent on something. “Hmm… I need to think on this.” She walked out of the room, leaving me and Heisuke

Heisuke stared at Kujou as she left. “O…kay… Aaaaaaaanyways, as I was saying, there's all kinds of costumes and makeup here.” 

“That's… nice?” I was sort of puzzled by where he was going with this 

Heisuke sighed. “It's just… it's fun, you know? There's nothing wrong with having a bit of fun once in awhile. Kujou… she's way too analytical.”

“What do you mean?” I seemed puzzled.

“I mean, does it have to have a purpose? Does there have to be this deeper overarching reason why this place has costumes? She's asking why but I'm just saying, why not?”

“So you’re saying there's no reason for this to be here?” I felt up the fabric of a costume. 

“Not necessarily…” Heisuke scratched his chin. “Whatever this place is… probably had a reason,  just sayin that we all need to just cool it with the junior detective work, or else we’ll just end up down eachother’s throats.”

“Oh!” I call out. “I've heard of that! Isn't it called vo-”

“NO!” Heisuke called out. “No, please, just, let me be happy, let me smile through today, alright?” 

“Ah…” I nodded. “I see what you mean by that… you're kinda like Daishin then.”

Heisuke let out a laugh. “HAH! No, that kids kinda creepy. Dude didn't even seem all that upset that Teruachi was killed. Like I get that stuff happens but that's just… taking it way too far.”

“Mm…” I could see where it would make people uncomfortable, but I didn't want to think Daishin was a horrible person. “Well, some people just cope differently… maybe that's how Daishin copes?”

Heisuke shook his head “I guess… but… ah, it's not worth getting upset over. We shouldn't be talking behind people's backs.”

“Yeah…” I looked towards the door. “I'm gonna find Kujou, alright?”

“Yeah yeah, I'm gonna see what else is in here.” Heisuke waved me off. “Seeya.” 

 

I walked down to the three doors past the bend in the hallway. There was also a small door at the end of the hallway. I went there first and opened it up. It was just a closet with a mop and a bucket, and a tank of water. Well that was worthwhile. I peeked into the first study to see Amaterasu. No. I was not dealing with that today. I didn't understand why Amaterasu was keeping such a grudge. I suppose I still haven't apologized… but I was kinda afraid she would just not accept it, or hit me again. I really didn't like getting hit. 

The second room was empty, where did Kujou go? I looked into the third door and I saw Homura, reading a book. That, I thought, was a lot better of an option then having to deal with Amaterasu again. I went through the doors and Homura looked up at me. “Ah, continuing the search?” 

“Yeah…” I nodded. “What are you doing in here?”

“I'm taking inventory… these private studies are… very well stocked.”

I looked around, there was a small table that looked like it could seat about 4 people, as well as a whiteboard at the back. 

Homura pulled a book out. “These encyclopedias are rather bulky… just how well stocked is this place?”

I looked by the bookshelf she got the encyclopedia came from, and pulled out a smaller, handheld whiteboard. “Hm… these must be for studying too…” each whiteboard came with its own marker. I put it away.

“Hey… Homura…” she turned towards me. “Yukimura tells me you and her saw someone… but she seems pretty lax on the details…”

“Ah…” Homura’s expression grew grim. “Yes… we did… I couldn't get a good look at them, but they sort of looked like you.”

“L-looked like me?” I was taken aback. Was a clone of me running around the facility?! “What do you mean?”

“She had white hair, like you, but was much much longer than yours. She also had a different outfit on.”

“A different outfit in what way?” I asked.

“It was Beige, I suspect it may be some kind of Hope's Peak Uniform.” She pulled out one of the encyclopedias. “Let's see here… ah yes.”

She put the book down onto the table and showed me a picture out of the encyclopedia. It was of a boys and girls uniform. “Hey wait a moment…”

I remembered those, those were the same outfits Shishido and Kazehaya were wearing when I found that photo a couple days ago.

“So as you can see, Waruki, I have reasonable suspicion to believe that The Overseer was not lying to us.” Homura closed the book and put it back on the shelf. 

“So… What do we do about it?” 

“Well, we can’t really do anything about it, they’ve probably gone into hiding, and are sure to make double sure not to get caught now that they already have.”

 

As Homura said that, we heard a sound coming from the intercom. It was the Nighttime Announcement.

“Ah…” I said to Homura. “I guess… we need to go to sleep…”

“We didn’t end up finding any other food-” Homura began, “But, if Amai begins any more trouble tomorrow, I will be sure to talk to him.”

“Alright…” I started out of the room. “Thanks, Homura! Ill see ya tomorrow!” 

I closed the door behind me and headed to bed. It was strange though… that supposed “Seventeenth” person… looked like me? No, it had to be a coincidence, right? I don’t remember having any siblings, a clone running around is pretty farfetched, and there’s no weird time shenanigans going on… so it had to be.

I stopped by the clothing store to pick up some new pajamas, and went down to the first floor. I reached my bed. I wasn’t really all that tired, but if going to bed when not tired helped with my sleep schedule, then it was a necessary evil. I got on my nightwear, and tucked myself into bed. 


	19. Chapter 4: Double Or Nothing (Daily Life Pt. 2)

I woke up from my bed with a yawn, my stomach still hungry from not being able to find food yesterday. The morning announcement had already played by this time, I had been used to it by now. Getting used to this situation was a very… surreal feeling. I knew I shouldn’t be used to being a captive, but if I had to choose between this and waking up in fear and discomfort, I’d probably choose this.

Walking out of my dorm room, I walked towards the cafeteria. It had practically become a morning ritual for everyone. There was less of a depressing atmosphere than there was last night, thankfully. Of course… what had happened would never leave our memories… the deaths of our friends won’t be so easily forgotten, or forgiven, but there was no way we could escape if we didn’t keep forward.

I had entered the cafeteria. There were a couple people still here. Kujou seemed to be very intense in her notes, Heisuke was laying down on a couple of chairs strung together, Yukimura had some cereal, and Amai’s head was buried in his arms on a table. I was glad that the kitchen was open now. Homura wasn’t here yet, so Amai must have left it on his own.

I entered the kitchen to grab myself some breakfast, and Otaka was there as well. He was blending some fruits and vegetables together in a blender.

“Hello Otaka!” I said towards him.

He pushed on the wheels of his wheelchair and turned towards me. “Ah, Hello.”

I looked at the drink he was making. “Oh, whats that?”

Otaka smiled. “Ah, this is just a drink I like to make in the morning… I haven’t been making it as of late though… so i'm trying to catch up.”

I smiled. “It looks uuh… healthy!”

Otaka nodded. “Mhm! It is! I used to drink it every day before my morning workout… but… I guess I can’t really do that now that i'm chairbound…”

I sighed. “I'm sorry to hear that… Maybe you can still do some arm workouts?”

Otaka shook his head, heading towards the door. “Chest and back workouts require more movement though…”

I fixed myself some oatmeal and headed back out to the cafeteria to eat it. I watched as the others came in and got their own breakfast as I ate my own. I recalled fondly the days when Shishido was here, before his life was taken by Ueno. He always prepared our meals, and was selfless to a fault. I would never forgive the person running this killing game. I could never do that.

 

Finally, after everyone was here, I saw Homura knock on the table to get everyone’s attention. “Excuse me, Can I have your attention please? There’s something that we need to talk about?”

Yukimura shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Amai groggily lifted his head from his arms, showing his teary eyed face. Heisuke also got up from his makeshift bed.

“We have multiple accounts of this secret 17th student that The Overseer mentioned being real. I want to know how to expect to deal with this.” Homura took her seat.

“Alright… Uuh…” Daishin scratched his head. “I… don’t really have a clue…”

Yukimura pointed towards me. “They kind of… looked like Waruki…”

Homura tsk’ed at Yukimura. “Anyone can have white hair, Yukimura.”

Yukimura sunk into her seat. “...s-sorry…”

Kujou closed her book. I thought it was strange, since normally, Kujou would want to keep notes on this sort of stuff. She looked a little upset about this topic. “Maybe they’re someone uuh… trying to save us?”

Heisuke looked at her weirdly. “If they’ve been trying to save us, then they’ve been doing a pretty bad job at it.”

I put a finger to my chin. “The Overseer is pretty powerful… maybe they’re having some trouble…”

Amaterasu raised her hand. “I got an idea, what if its some operative from the Black Kat Conglomerate?”

The room fell silent, aside from Heisuke coughing. A poor attempt at trying to break the silence, I presumed. Homura turned towards her. “You know of that organization too?”

Amaterasu shrugged. “I overheard some people talking about it a while back, don’t remember who though. Was during exploring that second floor”

Kujou opened her book once more, flipping through a couple pages. “Uhh... lets see... The Black Kat Conglomerate… also known as the “Kuroneko Zaibatsu” as an alias by members that are involved, is an organized crime ring, private criminals coming together to share profits and protect one another. The head of the organization is a man named Thomas Harding, who uuh… came to Japan and changed his name to Tadash-”

Amaterasu shouted at her. “We don’t want a complete police report, just get to the point!”

Kujou looked a bit frazzled. “W-well… ok… the point is, is that they’re more likely to be the ones masterminding this, rather than trying to help us…”

Heisuke thought for a moment. “We can’t really rule it out though, we all know well enough that criminals think in weird ways.”

I looked around. “Does… anyone else have any other ideas?”

Amai raised his head once again. “What about… that graffiti?”

“Ah, that's right…” Otaka began reciting the writing on the wall. “I, Twelfth Ender, Rid Brotherliness…”

“We still haven’t established who this ‘Twelfth Ender” character is.” Homura stated.

“So…” Yukimura began. “Y-you think this 17th person… is… T-Twelfth Ender…?”

“Eh… I mean… probably… I don’t know…” Amai put his head back into his arms. We could hear his muffled voice coming from under his arms. “Can I go now?”

Amaterasu looked at him. “Nobody’s forcing you… if you need to leave to grieve, i'm sure it's fine.”

We all verbally agreed with Amaterasu. With that, Amai managed to shuffle himself out of the cafeteria. We all looked at each other. Kujou opened her book again. “So… is that it? I have work to be getting to.” Kujou packed up her stuff and left as well.

“Hah…” Daishin chuckled. “She must be really worked up about something, if this is how she is acting…”

“It’s probably nothing.” I said. “But… I’ll have to check up on her later, for sure.”

One by one, we all left the cafeteria. There was still plenty of time left in the day, but I really wasn’t sure what to do. I decided that I might as well be a little more sociable, but how? I know Amai was probably still feeling bad about Teruachi, maybe I could go lift his spirits a little? I walked down the halls and reached his room, the little drawing of him on the door proving it.

 

I knocked on the door. “Hello? Amai? Are you in there?”

He opened the door for a second. His hair was out of his ponytail, and he didn’t have his hat on. He looked at me for a second, and then shut the door on me without saying a word.

“H-hey!” I stammered out. “Don’t just ignore me like that!”

His muffled voice called out from beyond the door. “I'm sorry, I don’t want to talk to my boyfriend’s murderer.” His voice sounded very… dead inside.

“Murderer?” I questioned. “I had to do that to survive! For all of us to survive!”

“I would have been pleeeeeeeeenty fine with dying.” Amai said, solemnly, but with a dash of bitter sarcasm, or unfettered realism

I didn’t have a response to that. It was a pretty heavy statement to make to me. I figured that Amai didn’t want to be bothered, or at least not by me. The group would be pretty screwed if I wasn’t there, huh? I decided to go look for someone else.

 

I saw Homura, walking around, inspecting the Laboratory. I knocked on the wall to get her attention. “Hey… uuh… you busy?”

“No, by all means, come in. I appreciate the company, Waruki.”

I stepped into the Laboratory. This is usually where we held trials, and got important announcements from The Overseer. However, all of the trial stands had been replaced with the tubes we woke up in. “So… what are you doing?”

“I want to see something. Can you call The Overseer?”

“What?” I took a step back. “Why would you want me to do that?”

“Just do it, I have something I want to do. Please?” Homura looked at me with begging eyes, or at least as much as she could muster. At the end of the day, she is still a pretty intimidating woman. Despite my apprehensions, I trusted Homura, so I obliged to her command.

At my beckoning, The Overseer popped out of the ground. He must have noticed that we were in the Laboratory, cause he popped out sitting on his throne. “What do you scamps want?”

As the floor opened and it rose however, Homura tried to dive down the hole that appeared. It looked to me like there was something there, like some knd of room or hall. Almost instantly, The Overseer grabbed Homura and tossed her aside. She hit the ground with a thud and a grunt. I rushed over to her side.

“Ah! Homura! Are you alright?” The Overseer looked at us with a scornful tone.

“Oooohhhhh no you don’t! That's the behind-the-scenes stuff! You aren’t allowed in there!”

“So… that is important? Is that the way out?” Homura looked up while I was attending to her bruises.

“That's for you to not know!” The shouts made us recoil a bit. “If you go down there, you might be privy on some precious info, and I’d have to off you! I'm sure you don’t want a pointless death, right?”

“Hey!” I called out. “Its not in the rules, though, so you’d be breaking your own rules!”

“...So?”

Both me and Homura stared at the robot. “...What do you mean so!?” I called out. “That’d break the integrity of your game!”

“No…” It refuted, voice getting more and more irate. “What would “break” it is if the local butch and her femme girlfriend got spoilers! BIG Spoilers! Sacrifices could, and ARE necessary in order to make sure the game runs smoothly!”

“Wh-what?!? Girlfriend?!?” I could feel my face heating up.

Homura barked back at me. “That's not what's important here Waruki!” Her face was just as heated as well.

She turned her attention from me. “Tell us robot!” She shouted. “Why do you get to break your own rules?”

“...who said I couldn’t?” The Overseer cocked its head at us.

“Huh?” I asked.

“I'm the one in power here, so I can bend and twist the rules as much as I want, kapiche?”

“But…” I couldn’t make out the words I truly wanted to say.

“So… we’re done here? Ok? Nice. I'm sure my points clear. No cheesing the system!”

The Overseer disappeared, both of us are too tangled into each other to make a break for the hole. Even if we weren’t, the message was clear. Don’t go in there, or we would die.

 

I helped Homura up. “So… uuh… i'm sorry for that…”

Homura shook her head. “No no, don't be, its not your fault.”

I brushed her off. “But, still...”

Homura put a finger to my lip. “Shh! No. No blaming. I knew the risk I was taking, this could have gone a lot worse.”

There was silence for a couple seconds. I took a deep breath before I wound up, and slapped her across the face.

“You knew you could have died!??! What if you did? What would have happened to me? To Kujou!? To Heisuke! To everyone that cared about you!”

Homura looked away. “I… I'm sorry… you know, everything that I do is devoted entirely to you. To escaping, no matter what.”

I could feel warm tears falling down my face. “And? There wouldn’t be a point to escaping if you weren’t there! I wanted to escape with everyone… but that's impossible now… but… don’t do anything reckless! I don’t want to see you get hurt!”

“Waruki… I…” Homura pulled the brim of her hat down over her eyes, to hide her expression. “I truly am sorry, for making you worry like this.”

I sniffled. “Its… its alright." God I felt horrible for hitting her, and shouting at her like that.  "I'm sorry for lashing out at you.” I looked up towards her and lifted her hat. I could see through the shade that she was repressing tears too. “Homura… I don’t want to lose you. I'm scared. Shishido, Kazehaya, Michizoe, Matsushita, it could have been any of us. It could have been you.”

Homura looked towards me, meeting me in the eyes. “Waruki… I don’t want to lose you either. You... mean too much to me.” Saying that, Homura stepped closer to be, and brought me into a teary eyed embrace.

I smiled towards her. “Hey… its Kimiko.”

 

…

 

I left the Laboratory in a good mood. I waved Homura goodbye as I went back to my room to wash up. It was probably unhealthy to keep washing myself this much, but there was something about me that enjoyed water, specifically feeling it. It felt more natural for me. Maybe my real talent was the SHSL Mermaid, and if I tried hard enough, my legs would fuse into a tail.

Probably not.

Eventually, my wandering lead me to the Laundry room, where Heisuke was poking around. “Hey.” I called out. “What… are you doing?”

“Huh? Oh, i'm just waiting for my clothes to be done.” He pointed to the washer. His green polo was in there. “Usually I have it dry cleaned but… times are tough…”

I looked over, he was in a white tank-top instead of his usual polo. “Are you doing alright?”

He looked at me strangely. “Yeah… are you? You ah, look a bit more chipper than usual. Did something happen?”

“Ah, nothing,” I said, curtly.

“You and Homura been hanging out more?” He asked, suspicious.

My face heated up once again. “Huh, why do you ask?”

Heisuke chuckled to himself. “I guess I don’t blame you two, being in a deadly situation like this, your hormones are probably going wild.”

I raised my voice towards Heisuke. “Hey! Don’t be gross!”

He raised up his hands defensively. “Whoooaaahhh there, just a little joke.”

I sighed. “Yeah yeah, alright, we've been together, just don’t go around and be a rumor mill, alright?”

Heisuke nodded, dragging the crack of 2 fingertips across his lips. “Yeah, sure, whatever you say. If there’s anything I’ve learned, its how to keep a secret.”

I cocked my head to the side. “Huh? What do you mean by that?”

Heisuke looked to the side. “Just sorta, learned, thanks to my life.”

“Really?” I hopped up and sat down on an empty washer. “Does pole vaulting really require you to keep that many secrets? I never knew…”

Heisuke chuckled softly to himself. “Hah… no… but since my father… he’s uuh… the Vice President of a business… I had to learn to keep some secrets.

“But…” I scratched my head. “You’re just a kid, why did _you_ have to keep secrets?”

Heisuke had a sour look on his face. “Tsh, that's the thing about that company. Nepotistic twits, the lot of them. The big guy up top’s uuh… celibate, so that went to my dad, and…”

“You’re the oldest, so you’re expected to take the role once they both pass on?” I leaned a little forward in my seat, finishing Heisuke’s words for him.

Heisuke stayed silent for a couple moments, crossing his arms. “...something like that, yeah. I don’t really know, but I think uuh… “company management…” and a dream sports career are kinda different.”

“Hey… You said “company management” kinda weird.” I pointed out.

Heisuke didn't look me in the eye for a couple moments. Its very likely I was starting to bring up a bad topic with him. Before I could retract my statement though, he answered me. "Yeah… its a bit hard to explain though. Its like, politics and shit.”

“Politics?” I asked.

“Yeah, Hell, just last year, some hotel company tried to take out a rivals heir. Followed the trial on TV, said they cut the brakes to his car. Can you believe that?” Heisuke seemed grim.

“Aren’t you scared you’re in danger though? I mean-” I got cut off.

“Naaaaah, I'm already pretty much an outcast from the family anyways for going with sports. A lot of coaches and scouts and camera's have got my eye on me. Besides, if someone tries to mess with me, I can always give them THIS!” Heisuke flexed his arms.

“Wow, you uuh... sure have some... big muscles...?” I said, a bit of a white lie, considering they were above average at best, but still more then I had.

“Hey…” Heisuke mentioned, getting back up off the wall he was leaning on and taking his shirt out of the machine. “Its almost dinner, isn’t it?”

“Ah… I guess it is?” I replied. Had it really been that long?

“We should probably make an effort to try and be there. You know, group unity and stuff.” Heisuke looked away.

“Aww, you do care!” I lightly punched his arm as be quietly barked back at me to shut up. It seemed like Heisuke was starting to warm up to the situation, despite his seemingly careless attitude.

 

Eventually, we reached the cafeteria, and I went into the kitchen to get some dinner. Admittedly, a fried egg and cheese sandwich isn’t the most filling, but i'm out of practice for my cooking.

About halfway through eating though, a couple of us noticed Kujou zoom into the cafeteria, take some food, and rush out.

“Heeeeeeey!” Otaka called out to her. “Can’t you stay and eat with us?”

“So sorry!” She responded. “I'm busy!”

Otaka lowered his head in resignation. “Ah well… its not worth it.”

Yukimura rubbed her hands together. “A-are you sure, she’s fine though?"

"Im sure she'll be alright. That girls got a good head on her shoulders." Kei said to the group. 

"B-but... wh-what if sh-she’s planning… murder…”

The words hung in the air like the sound of a gunshot on a cool empty night. Nobody liked the idea of that, but all of us had been respecting Kujou’s wishes to be left alone. I wanted to trust Kujou though, I wanted to think she wouldn’t resort to something like that, but the idea didn’t leave my head. It didn’t leave any of our heads.

“Hey…” I stood up, finishing my sandwich. “I'm gonna go check on her, alright? Do you know where she might be?”

“I don’t know…” Heisuke shrugged. “Library?”

“Alright… Seeya!” I waved to them and left the cafeteria. I passed by the other table as I left, housing Amaterasu, Amai, and Daishin. The former 2 shot me a cruel glare for a couple seconds, while Daishin just gave me a nervous smile. I suppose he didn’t want the both of them to feel alone.

 

Entering the library, it seemed like Heisuke’s guess was right. I saw Kujou, huddled into the corner behind a table with her journal. She seemed to be hurriedly switching between notes.

“Kujou!” I called out to her.

“Huh?” She looked up at me. Now that I took a closer look at her, her eyes seemed more tired than usual. “Oh… Hello Waruki. Don’t mind me.”

“What?” I sat down on the other side of the table. “What have you been doing?”

“Well…” Kujou flipped open and showed me diagrams of each of the floor’s shes been sketching. “I think I have an idea of where we are.”

“Interesting...” I replied. “So, how have you been? You’ve been kinda secluding yourself lately. We're all worried.”

Kujou gave me a small smile. “I’ve been fine… don’t worry alright? Anyways, See, the floors are all going up, so-“

“Kujou...” I tried calling out to her, but it didn’t work. She just kept rambling.

“-which made me think, where is the water and electricity coming from? So I-“

“Kujou.” I tried, once again failing my attempt.

“-I could infer, then, that wherever this breaker box is-“

“Kujou Akemi!!” I shouted out to her, which finally got her to quiet down. I did feel bad, but it was getting a little bit ridiculous.

“Ah… I’m sorry… did you need something?” Kujou leaned back in her seat a bit.

“Just…” I reached across the table to close her book. “Please, just, take a break? I want to talk to you to hear about you.”

“But…” Kujou scratched her head. “Don’t you want to escape?”

“Ill... be fine for one day.” I smiled towards her. It was no lie that I truly did want to escape this place, but I also didn't want to see Kujou get too absorbed and caught up in her investigations. Healthy relationships, as I had learned today, were just as important. “No book though, I wanna talk to you face to face.”

She looked uncomfortable at this. “It’s… not like that… but… alright, I guess.”

Kujou and I stared at each other in silence for a couple moments. It appeared that none of us knew what to say.

“So uuh…” I began. “Didn’t you tell me a while ago you wanted to be an investigative journalist?”

“...I guess, yeah.” Kujou crossed her arms. “There is a lot of bad, and evil in the world you know.”

“Yeah…” being here for so long was quite the wake up call on what anybody was capable of. The levels of cruelty…

“Not everyone is cut out to be a detective though…” She sighed more. “And I don’t really think I’d want to after this ordeal…”

I patted her arm. “I understand… but being an editor, it's just like being a detective, in a way, right?”

Kujou looked to the side. “Yeah, I’ve heard that one before. Finding mistakes is like finding clues, right?… but, at least i'm useful. My work is going to last…”

“Books are pretty permanent.” I quip. “You should still take a break though, sometimes, you know? I don’t wanna see you overwork yourself.”

"I... I cant." Kujou hung her head.

"Huh? Why not?" I asked.

"I need to keep working, I need to keep doing this. The press... even if its someone as insignificant as someone that catches spelling errors..."

Kujou looked up to me with intense eyes. "Someone like me could make the difference in the world. Have you ever heard of the butterfly effect?"

"The... Butterfly effect?" I asked her. "I can't say I have..."

Kujou pointed to her book, which I had kept on my side of the table. "Please, just one paper."

I obliged, ripping out a piece, just behind her sketches. She drew a butterfly, and then a tornado.

"The Butterfly effect is this thought experiment, where something insignifigant as the air moved by a butterfly moving its wings can cause something huge, like a tornado or hurricane."

"Really? Thats... wow."

"You understand, right Waruki?" She asked me. 

"I mean, I suppose, My best friends, Ryouhei, the only reason that we met is because I could catch up to a hot dog truck that sprung a flat tire when we were both 7."

Kujou nodded. "Thats about right. Say someone hadn't carelessly thrown, say, a nail out their car. All the things that happened in your friendship wouldn't have happened."

I shook the hair on my head. "So... thats why you continue to work?"

"Thats right." Kujou replied. "There's millions of people in Tokyo alone, and I could be that butterfly, or nail, to hundreds of people. Thats why its important for me to stay diligent... I could even save the world and not know it..."

Just as she said that, the nighttime announcement rang throughout the library.

 

“Ah…” I said. “It must be time to go to sleep.” I got up out of my chair, but Kujou stopped me for a second.

“Hey, Waruki,” She said. “...How many more do you think are going to die, before we can leave?”

I stood there, a little bit shaken by how morbid her words were. “I… I would hope no more?”

Her demeanour suddenly got a lot more sullen- yet serious. “People are cruel, Waruki. They will exploit, even hurt others to get what they want. Please, I know you want us all to get out of here, but…”

She leaned over to my side of the table and opened her book, flipping to a page much much earlier on in her book. She started walking past me. “Don’t forget the Overseer’s words. One of us is still the Mastermind. Be careful who you put your trust into.”

 

Sensing the seriousness in her words, I let her leave, waiting a couple moments before making my exit as well. She was right… was that what she was doing? Trying to deduce the Mastermind?

I went to my room. I saw Kei on my way back, and made it a point to wish her goodnight. I lied down in my bed and thought about the words Kujou spoke. I couldn’t imagine any of them being the mastermind… but as much as I wanted to trust Kujou, the thought that her words on not trusting anybody…

Was there a chance she was referring to **herself?**

Could I trust her? Could I trust Kei? Could I still afford to trust anyone at this point?

 

I deepened my bonds with people today... and yet, that haunting question reverberated in my mind. Could I trust anyone? Thinking that, I fell asleep more alone than I had felt in my entire life. 


	20. Chapter 4: Double Or Nothing (Daily Life Pt. 3)

I woke up to a pointed stiffness in my joints. I didn’t really have a good sleep at all. The words that Kujou told me before bed had kept me just barely on the threshold of consciousness. I’d found myself tossing and turning all throughout the night. A low sleep, only to be snapped back awake by my own fears and anxieties.

*Ding Dong!*

My eyes couldn’t keep themselves open at the morning announcement. I groggily propped myself up in my bed. No… It wasn’t my bed. It would never be my bed, This wasn’t my house. I didn’t belong here. I still needed to get out, along with everyone. Everyone? Someone was the mastermind… I could keep up the pleasantries as much as I could try, but it didn't change that fact. My chest felt like a rubber band ready to snap at any given-

*Ding Dong Ding Dong Ding Dong!*

I groaned. Maybe it was less like a snap, but more like a frozen rubber band crunching under pressure. I looked towards the door. Whoever was out there was trying really hard to get my attention. Reluctantly, I got myself out of bed, and dressed. I supposed that I’d have time to wash up later if it meant that the incessant ringing of my bell. As I opened the door, I saw Yukimura there, holding her hat, looking rather upset about something.

“Waruki!!”

Ok. It was just Yukimura, and was clearly scared about something. I put my hands up, taking a step back. I looked at myself, just to make sure the Overseer wasn’t making us swap bodies again.

“Yukimura! Just, Alright calm down, whats going on?”

Yukimura rubbed her elbows. “I… Kujou said she wanted everyone uh… i-in the cafeteria… it… sounded serious…”

“Oh jeez…” Kujou was talking about such serious things yesterday. I almost didn't want to go, but I knew I should. We all had to work together in order to escape. I scratched at my hair. “Did she look like, angry or…?”

“Well... “ Yukimura looked away. “No… but…”

I placed a hand on Yukimura’s shoulder. “Alright, just calm down then, alright? I'm sure whatever is on her mind isn't that scary.”

“O-ok!” Yukimura turned and walked away, putting her hat back on her. It looked rather poor fitting though. Once I get out of here, I have to make sure that she gets a better fitted one.

 

I washed my face and headed out towards the cafeteria. It seemed that I was the last one to arrive, as everyone else had already gathered and was facing Kujou.

“Ah.” Kujou stood at the front of the group, facing the rest of us. I saw her face light up a bit as she noticed me. “I'm glad you’ve arrived, Waruki. I have news to share.”

“Is it how to escape?” Amaterasu asked her.

“No no… well, I mean, kind of? Kujou pulled out her notebook, flipping through the pages as she stumbled past her words. “I think… I know where we are though… if my notes are right…”

“Where we are?” Amai asked. “Like, where this place is?”

“That's great news!” Daishin beamed. “A wise man once said ‘Knowing is half the battle’ after all!”

“Can uuh… can we just keep going?” Yukimura asked, fidgeting with her hat.

“Yes, yes, Of course!” Kujou cleared her throat. “See, I think that because of the-”

“Just give it us to start, you can explain yourself after.” Kei asked, politely

Kujou stopped herself, looking pretty surprised at the request, but flipped 2 or 3pages forward. “Well… Ok… I'm pretty certain this is a bunker.”

“A Bunker?!” Otaka seemed shocked. “Like, to protect against bombs and stuff??”

“I mean,” Daishin ran his fingers through his hair. “Bunkers can be used for anything, really.”

“Heh… that does make sense, I guess.” Heisuke looked around. “Would explain why nobody’s come to rescue us, or even heard our screams.”

I scratched my head. “But… why is this bunker here in the first place?”

“I’d imagine that it was for some kind of bomb protection, as Otaka said.” Kujou started. “And… the person behind this probably set it up for our game…”

“I get it…” Kei began. “Repurpose a bunker. Due to the sheer scale of it though, I’d Imagine that this would be meant for long-term stay.”

“I guess…” Amai still seemed down over Teruachi’s death. I don’t blame him. He was folded into himself. It looked like he was slowly getting better each day. It might have been fake, but I hoped he was talking to people to help him.

After Kujou’s explanation though, the room was silent. Nobody really got up to leave. I looked around. It seemed like a rather awkward situation.

 

Amaterasu was the first one to break the silence. “So?”

Kujou looked stunned for a moment. We all were. The deafening silence continued for a couple more seconds before Kujou replied. “Huh? What do you mean “so?”

Amaterasu sighed. “Its nice and all, but its kind of useless, right? We still can’t get out.” She put her arms in the air, stretching them out. “It’d be more useful once we actually can leave though.”

“Hey now.” Kei cracked her neck. “I think we can gather from that, we need to get likely to the top floor before we can leave.”

“And the only way to do that…” Amai added, grimly and hesitantly, “...is to keep playing the killing game...”

Amaterasu winced when Amai said that. She didn't look happy. “So we’re still royally fucked!” Amaterasu shouted. “See? It doesn’t help anyone!”

I looked all around. Everyone was clearly uncomfortable at the situation. Most notably, I could see Yukimura harshly gripping her sleeve. Come to think of it, she’s been high strung this entire morning. To be fair though, I was too. The killing game was taking an emotional toll on everybody. It was only a matter of time before people started cracking.

Hesitantly, I attempted to diffuse the situation. Amaterasu and I hadn't been on good terms as of late, but I was hoping to fix that. “Well…” I began “I thought it was helpful. We shouldn’t get complacent just because-”

“Oh?” Amaterasu sneered. “You don’t want us to be complacent? Waruki? You want us to just sit here till we grow old?” Her hands suddenly shot up to her head, letting out a harsh sound of pain. I could see her hand move to her sweater for a moment, before backing away. “I can’t keep doing this! Do you WANT us to keep killing? Maybe you-”

“SHUT UP!”

 

The harsh reverberation clattered through all of our ears. It was loud, and cacophonous, and a voice none of us had really heard before. I looked around, as did everyone else, until our eyes settled on the source. Yukimura. The first time I had ever heard her be loud. The first time I had ever seen her genuinely angry. She took a couple steps forward to Amaterasu.

“All you d-do is pick on Waruki and her friends! A-and try and keep them down? E-Ever since your fight you take a-any and all chances to t-tear her down! Its f-f-fucking aggravating! And you do it to people she’s close to as well! I'm sorry, life isn’t one big clique war!”

Unwillingly, I could feel my hand clench my skirt. I knew Amaterasu well enough to know how she didn't like it when people fired back at her. Especially when it was about me. I Instinctually moved closer to Kei.

Amaterasu stuck her chin out. “Oh! I didn’t know you sympathized with people that go blabbing their secrets to other people! No, let's mess with the poor sod that actually WANTS to get everyone out! Real nice!”

Seeing mine and everyone else’s discomfort, Daishin tried to butt in between the two. “H-hey hey… ladies… lets not start a scene here, alright?” But Yukimura just (gently) pushed him aside.

Yukimura’s rage continued. “I n-nearly died! I f-felt like I was dying! D-d-do you expect Waruki to just… walk away! S-s-seriously! It was needed i-info! M-Michizoe felt sick too! Jesus, Can you s-stop being such a huge bitch for 5 minutes!”

With those words, Yukimura lurched back and slapped Amaterasu across the face. The impact of what Yukimura had done took mere femtoseconds before Daishin came running back between them, more forceful this time. His smile had completely dropped. He was actually quite menacing when he isn’t smiling.

“Yukimura, Please, don’t do this, just, calm down alright?” Daishin held onto her from behind, hand around her wrist. She slowly started to calm down, but not before Amaterasu came back from the impact.

She held her cheek, and man did she look pissed. “You- You snot nosed brat! You’re telling ME that life isn't some clique war? Take a look at yourself!” She trembled for a few seconds. I swear that I could see tears pooling in her goggles. In an instant, she ran out of the cafeteria, leaving us all in an awkward silence.

 

“Oh…” Yukimura’s demeanor quickly dropped to that of a scared rabbit. “Oh n-no no” her figure crumpled in on itself and she started to shake uncontrollably into Daishin.

Another rare sight, Daishin looked genuinely scared for Yukimura. “H-hey, Please don’t fret, alright?”

“N-no!” Yukimura’s eyes shut tight as she grabbed the sides of her hat pulling it down. “I h-hurt th-them… I… I y-yell… I y-yelled a-at her… I…”

“Its alright, Yukimura.” Kei said. “You were only trying to protect us.”

“Kinda seems hypocritical though.” Amai quipped. “She said it ain’t some clique war, but that's what its feeling like to me.”

“Ghaaaahhhh!!!” Yukimura let out another primal, terrified scream and burst past Daishin’s grip and ran out of the cafeteria.

“Wait! Yukimura!” Daishin exited, chasing after her.

“Aw, cmon Amai.” Heisuke scolded. “Did you have to say something like that?”

“I'm not wrong!” Amai said. “Look, I don't like it either, but there's been a serious divide lately!”

“Says the person that won't even look Waruki in the eyes” mentioned Heisuke.

My heart dropped a bit as he brought me into the conversation. Amai was definitely distant from me ever since the last Trial. While I don't blame him…

Amai snapped back at Heisuke. “I have my reasons! Don't-”

“Ok, Look!” Kujou stepped in between the two. “Whats said is said… but… we can’t be fighting like this, alright? The Overseer is probably cackling at our divisiveness…”

Amai had a sour look on his face. “I guess…” He, too, left the room sullenly.

“Jeez…” Otaka looked towards Kei. “Hey, we should go try and calm Amaterasu down…”

“You’re right.” Kei nods. “I'm not sure how much she’ll listen to me, but it seems she likes you quite a bit.” She said before they both left the room.

“...” Heisuke and Kujou looked to each other. “I'm… sorry.” She said. “I never uhm… meant for things to turn out this way…”

Heisuke shook his head. “Nah, it ain't your fault they all can’t work together.”

I felt really bad… like in the end, this fight was somehow my fault. I sniffled a bit. I wish I wasn't here, in this messed up killing game. As much as it hurt though, I had to keep my spirits. It would be too easy to become sullen. I wouldn't let myself get like that after one argument.

“Still… I feel like I owe it to go check if Yukimura is alright…” I said. I saw how she was when she ran, and I didn’t want to leave someone like that.

“That's fair.” Heisuke nodded. “I still don’t fully trust that Daishin guy, personally. He seems way too chipper. I know it seems kind of counterproductive, but he seems almost too trusting?”

I got a bit annoyed at Heisuke. He’s seemed fixated on Daishin lately, but I suppose I had no right to dictate how Heisuke thought. I left the cafeteria.

 

Going down the halls, I saw Daishin sitting on the floor outside Yukimura’s room.

“Hey… you alright?” I asked him.

“Heh… yeaaaahhhhh… I'm trying to see if Yukimura is gonna come out, but, she seems a bit stubborn at it.”

“You two seem very close.” I said.

This caused Daishin to laugh a little more. “Don't get any funny ideas, alright? Any closeness you see between us is platonic at most.”

“If you say so…” I looked at the door. “She’s in there?”

“Yeah, but if I can't even get her out, you probably won't either. Feel free to give it a shot though.”

“Hmm…” I paced up to the door and gave it a light knock. “Yukimura…? Are you alright?”

“No…” She replied back, not opening the door.

“Oh… Uhm…” Honestly, I didn't expect the honestly. “Do you wanna talk about it? We can come in if you want.” I knocked a bit quieter.

“Not… really... I just, need some time, alright? Can you two just, leave me alone? Just for a bit...” The sound of feet shuffling could be heard from behind the door.

“Well!” Daishin propped himself up off the ground with a grunt and clapped his hands, before taking a moment. It looked like his hand still hadn’t fully healed, the bandages looking a little rough around the edges, and a faint trail of blood dripped.

“You… are going to give up that easy?” I questioned.

“You aren’t?” He asked me. “She needs time to herself, i'm not gonna stay here the entire night and fight with her. I'll be back later.” He started off. “Besides, I have to replace my bandages. You wanna come along?”

“Ah, uuh… sure…” I didn’t have anything else better to do, so I agreed to come along to the infirmary with Daishin.

 

We arrived in the Infirmary.

I looked at Daishin’s bandaged hand. “Are you alright?” I asked him.

“Huh?” He turned to me. “Oh! You mean my hand?”

“I mean-” What did he think I meant!?!? “-Yeah.”

Its only been a couple days, so of course a serious injury such as that isn’t going heal up, but i'm slightly scared that if he keeps straining it, it's going to reopen.

“Ahh, don’t fret about this, I’ve had much worse.” Daishin giggled, holding his newly bandaged hand up. “This? This is nothing.”

“It's still serious though!” I said.

“Yeah yeah I know, why do you think I'm cleaning it?” He said. “I'll be fine I always am.”

“You always are?” I asked. “You must be quite confident in your health.”

“I mean… yeah.” He looked to the side. “I believe I told you how i'm a bit of an adventurer?”

“Oh yeah!” I'm fairly certain he mentioned that before. “You like to explore and make maps?”

“Well…” Daishin said, “it's a bit more than just making maps…”

I sighed, not out of annoyance but out of being caught. I really shouldn't diminish someone's talent like that. “You make them as accurate and nice as possible.”

“Of course!” He chuckled. “The most accurate and pleasing to the eye in the entire world! That's the SHSL Cartographer’s job!”

Right, Hamadate Daishin, the SHSL Cartographer. I was becoming more and more disconnected from the school. How long has it been since we found ourselves trapped in here? It had to be at least 2 weeks, right?

“So… do you like traveling?” I asked him.

“I mean, of course! What kind of adventurer would I be if I didn't?” He asked.

“Really? Where have you gone?”

“Oh!” Daishin started. “Usually I just catch the best deals on around the Japan area. My uncle has a friend who's a pilot, so our family gets some nice deals.”

I nodded. “So… when you said you’ve had worse…”

He started to giggle, but it felt more like trying to use laughter to repress bad memories. “I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever told you how I actually got my talent, did I?”

“Your… talent?” He did raise a good question. How does one even become a SHSL Cartographer?

“It's a bit of a long story, so I’ll give you the short version, alright?” He took a seat in a plastic chair.

I shrugged. “I mean, It's not like i'm pressed on time, but I appreciate the consideration.”

“Ok ok ok!” He had his hands out in front of him. I could tell that he was having fun telling this story. “So, picture this, I'm on a plane, travelling to go see some of my extended family, right?”

I nod. “Right…?”

He claps his hands. “WRONG! The plane veers off course! I Think whoever the pilot was, he was trying to kidnap us, but something caused our plane to go down over an island! Haha!”

“Ha...ha?” I squinted my eyes. “That's uhh… that doesn’t really strike me as something that you would want to laugh about.

“Eh.” Daishin shrugged. “It's not like the crash killed me, so it's alright, right?”

I nodded, though I was heavily uneased. “I mean… I guess… but still… you almost died! And you got stuck on a deserted island! What about the others? What about the pilot?”

“Oh!” Daishin corrected me. “Don’t worry, it wasn’t deserted!”

“Ah.” I could feel my heart starting to slow down.

“Yeah, You remember that Island from the documentaries, the one that attacks any foreigners that try to get near?”

Almost like magic, I felt my heart reach mach speeds once more. “Oh my god!?”

“Y-yeah…” his smile beamed brighter but his eyes started to waver. “They uuh… they didn't like us a lot… if the crash didn't kill some people, they hunted them down…”

He too a deep breath in and out. I reached out to touch his hand. He must have seen some really bad things. “Hey hey, it's alright, ok? You don't have to keep going if you don't want to.”

He frowned for a moment before shaking his head. “Th-thanks… but I'll be fine, I'm sure.”

I smiled lightly to him. I was tense because of the killing game, but it was moments like these I'm glad our bonds strengthened.

“Well.” I said. “I'm glad you’re here.”

Daishin ran his hand through his hair. “Yeah… Its alright though. There’s nothing I could do about it, and I trusted fate that it would keep me safe.”

I cocked my head. “Fate?”

Daishin nodded. “Yeah. Fate brought me to the island, and fate got me out. Heck, fate even got me into the school for a map of the island that I made! I trust fate to get me out of any jam, even here!”

Fate...

I scratched my neck. “But… and you don't have to answer, I'm just curious… how did you even manage to get off the island?”

He sighed. “I eventually swam for it, using a couple pieces of driftwood i strung together, and a rescue boat from a cruise liner got me.”

He smiled. I could imagine the memory of being saved would make someone that happy.

That was rather anticlimactic, but I suppose it made sense.

“So!” Daishin clapped again. “That's my life story, any questions?”

“Yeah…” I nodded. “So, you think we’re gonna get out of here because of fate?”

That's right, I remember Daishin talking about this earlier, after his hand got injured.

“I mean, that's all I can think of now. It's… pretty helpless, don't you think? Nowhere to go, nowhere to run, but fate’ll take care of me, it always shows me the right way.”

I paused. I wanted to say something against it, but I felt like I understood Daishin better. For him, Fate was what helped him get though such harsh circumstances. His belief in fate is what is able to keep him smiling day after day. It was his hope.

I aspired to have something like that, something to believe in. I still had Kei, but I wouldn't let my guard down til the both of us get out of here.

Finishing his wrappings, he headed for the door. “I’ll just… see where fate takes me, I suppose. See ya Waruki!”

He shut the door to the infirmary behind him, leaving him alone.

 

I looked around the room. It was quite eerie now that I thought about it. This was where Shishido got his death sentence… despite being a place of life and healing… it felt rather uncanny. I got up and stepped to the medicine cabinet.

Something… felt off. Not just because of the fact that this is where Shishido's fate was sealed. I felt like there had to be something more to this cabinet. I pressed my face closer, trying to figure it out. If I tuned in my hearing, I almost felt like I could hear something. A rustling, inside it? That didn’t make any sense though… I tried to tune out the rest of my surroundings to listen in even further. Steps? No. It was…

“Waruki…?”

 

“GHAAH!” I jumped out of my spot. Turning back behind me, Otaka was looking at me with a strange look on his face.

“Uhm… what are you doing?”

“Oh!” I was pretty embarrassed. How could I explain to him that I was listening to a cabinet? Put like that, it seemed pretty ridiculous. “I just uuh… was checking on the medicine, to see if there’s any more tampering!”

Otaka took a couple seconds, before answering back to me. “Ah, alright.”

I looked at him. “Do you need any help with anything?”

He shook his head. “No… I just was wondering really… there’s not much for us to do, come to think of it.”

That's right. Otaka is the SHSL Tree Climber, but considering his unfortunate accident a matter of days ago, he couldn't do much. I could tell from looking at him that the bulk of his muscle mass was still there, but without proper upkeep…

“Its alright…” Otaka started to wheel himself away, but I soon found myself calling out to him.

“Wait!” I said. Talking to people, as I had found, was a good way of keeping my mind off of things.

“Huh?” His head craned back around to meet me catching up to him.

“If you’re bored, why don’t we try and find something to do together?” I asked him.

“Ah! That sounds like a fun idea!” I could see his face lighten up a bit at the suggestion.

I walked out of the room with him. “So… what do you want to do?”

“Hmm… I'm not too sporty… but I wouldn't mind going to the gym!”

And so, per Otaka’s request, both of us eventually ended up back at the gym on the second floor.

 

When we arrived at the gym, I noticed Otaka wasn't heading to his usual place. “Hey…” I asked. “Don’t you want to go to the weight room?”

His face paled. Right. That was… a pretty stupid question, wasn’t it. Shit… get it together Waruki! “You know what? We don’t need to lift weights. Just… stay here for one second!”

I ducked into the weight room, keeping my mind off the question I asked. It had been the first time that I had been in here since the incident… yet as hard as I tried my eyes were still drawn to the scene against my will.

It was the same as the Lounge though, after Shishido’s death. it was clean… too clean. It was sterilized. The Overseer must have done it during the trial. I had to imagine that the Hospital was the same way. There was no trace of Kazehaya left…

I quickly grabbed a basketball out of a barrel near the door and made my leave. Being in that room made me sick to my stomach. I couldn’t stand another moment inside.

“Uh… Waruki… are you alright?” Otaka asked me. He must have noticed my expression.

“Y-Yeah… i'm fine…” I still felt nauseous from going in there… but it would come to pass in time, I'm sure of it.

Continuing to bottle up my emotions, I bounced the basketball to him, and he took it. “Ah!” He bounced it a couple times. “I’ve uuh… I’ve heard of this. Wheelchair Basketball!”

“Oh yeah!” I pointed to the hoop. “There are some real talented athlete’s out there. You’re strong, could you maybe do something like that?”

Otaka shook his head. ‘No no... I'm afraid i'm not much of an athlete in that sense… I can try though!”

Otaka took his shot, but despite hitting the rim, he couldn’t quite make it.

“It's alright!” I put my hand on his shoulder. “Don’t feel bad, you don’t have as much control, so you’re bound to miss a bit. C’mon!”

“Er…” Otaka looked at me with a funny look on his face. “Thanks… for reminding me…?”

“Oh!” my face turned bright pink. “I'm sorry, I didn’t mean it that way!” Great. I really was having trouble watching my mouth.

“Its… Its alright…” Otaka looked a bit down, and I could tell that it wasn’t entirely alright. I’d have to make extra sure in the future to make it up to him. “Well, look! I said. “I'm not very good either, see?”

I took a shot and didn’t even manage to hit the rim.

“Hmm… I think you just need some uuh… practice.” Otaka told me.

“Hey, you too, pal!” Pal? Whatever, cheesy nicknames aside, it was a good lesson for both of us. A lesson in being able to practice.

“Hey Waruki…” he said. “Do you remember anything about your talent?”

I paused. I hadn't been thinking about it too much lately, just a couple fleeting thoughts, but it was a good question. What was I?

“Not really…” I said. I hadn’t a clue what it could be.”

“That's alright.” Otaka threw another shot. “You’re still a part of the group regardless…”

“Doesn't seem that way sometimes.” I said.

Otaka looked worried. “You and Amaterasu haven't been getting along…”

“I know I know” I replied, taking another crack at a 3 pointer. “I'm just… a little scared to talk to her, you know?”

“She isn't that bad.” He said. “She's just upset. This killing game has got us all on edge. Maybe you should try apologizing to her.”

“Maybe.” I gave it some consideration. “She’d probably just walk away though.”

“That's a shame…” Otaka paused for a couple seconds. “Amai seems distant from you as well…”

“Yeaaahhh…” I did feel guilty about it. The image of Teruachi flashed through my head. “I just, I couldn't let everyone die, you know?”

“I understand.” Otaka wheeled closer to me. “You’re doing your best though, just keep in mind other people, and uh… I'm sure that you guys will be on good terms soon enough.”

Otaka pulled me into a hug. Considering his stature, it was a bit painful, but I didn't mind. I reciprocated it. “Thanks, Otaka. I needed that…”

The killing game was taking a heavy toll. I knew I couldn't ignore it forever, but I could at least make it a bit easier. I didn't really consider it bottling at the time, but I did find myself repressing my sorrow around him. I couldn't worry him.. Not Otaka. I couldn't let my bad bad feelings out around such a nice person like him. Those things could wait.

And so, Otaka and I spent a considerable amount of time together shooting baskets until both of us had become rather adept at landing a shot. I was still pretty bad, but Otaka seemed to be having a lot of fun, and I think that is what was most important in this situation. Anything to keep my mind off of this wretched killing game. Anything to make me forget about our entrapment.

 

Its always the times that you needed to forget the most that life finds a way to slap you in the face with a reminder. A cold, harsh, jagged reminder.

In this case, it was in the form of The Overseer summoning us back to the laboratory on the first floor.

 

It had been a while since we all were forced to stand here, in front of him. The last time had another one of his “motivations” happen during our sleep, so while I am relieved to not have my body be messed with it does make me very worried for what The Overseer is planning to do to us all.

“Hey hey!” The Overseer waved to us all in a faux-friendly manner once the last of us had arrived. “Glad to see you all here!”

“Oh, can it!” Amaterasu shouted down to The Overseer.

“Yeesh,” The Overseer looked away. “You still feeling upset after Violet Shrinks-a-lot over there stood up to you this morning?”

“Er- I” Yukimura looked away from both Amaterasu and The Overseer. She very clearly didn’t want to be here.

“What do you want from us this time, buckethead?”

“...Buckethead?” The Overseer extended his neck to Heisuke. “...I don’t get it. C’mon, you gotta insult your captor correctly. You think this is some kind of 2 penny operation?”

“No! It was great!” Heisuke began to scratch at his chin and argue with The Overseer. “Haven’t you ever heard of the term “Bucket of Bolts?” See, that's you, cause you got bolts, robot right? And then I took the bucket from that saying, and-”

“Lets just… listen to what he’s saying.” Amai interrupted Heisuke’s ramblings.

“Yes! Listen to Solo Gelato over there! Cause I'm here to offer you an alternative way out!” The Overseer put 2 fingers up to his head in a rather cutesy, yet still mocking fashion.

“Huh? A way out?” Daishin looked like he had just been given a christmas present.

“Alternative…” Kujou reminded him. “He still wants us to kill.”

“That's right! I love you all so much I'm willing to do that for you! C’mere you big softies!” The Overseer’s arms extended and reached around the room, enveloping us all. Despite our differences, all of us grouped together as the arms came in. I even got up close to Amaterasu, who looked more scared of what was happening than angry to be near me. Perhaps she was changing…?

The Overseer’s metal arms gave us a rather soft hug, before releasing us. “See, You all are the bestest of friends now, aren’t you? Your ‘bonds’ and all that rubbish.”

“That is your folly, Overseer. Due to our bonds, none of us shall kill one another.” Kei stood up tall to it. “The longer it goes, the harder it shall be to break us.”

“Eh.” The Overseer shrugged. “I'm a gambling man- er, robot. I bet it’ll take another day, tops. Besides! It's not like I don't have all the time in the world! BACK TO THE POINT!! I’ve noticed your little get togethers and bonding moments, So I decided to let you have a little slack on the rules! Surely you all have someone here you’d be good friends- or more with! Shoutout to Snow White in the back!”

“H-Hey!” I blushed once more, my love life suddenly being brought into the discussion.

“Thus, I’ve decided that, for the next murder only, that I'll relax on the rules a bit!”

“But…” Otaka moved himself a bit more to the front. “What do you mean by… relax?”

I had a really bad feeling about this. The Overseer laughed. That same laugh he usually gets while he relishes in all of our despair.

The Overseer, despite not having a mouth, got a very sinister look on its face, as if it had been anticipating this question.

**“If you murder someone and avoid detection at the class trial. You may pick one other person of your choosing to be spared from execution and escape alongside you.”**


	21. Chapter 4: Double Or Nothing (Daily Life Pt. 4)

**“If you murder someone and avoid detection at the class trial. You may pick one other person of your choosing to be spared from execution and escape alongside you.”**

The room got dead silent.

“That's right Kiddo’s!” The Overseer called out. “You might not even need to kill someone to leave! If your homicidal buddy gets stab happy, you wouldn’t have to lift a finger!”

Our mouths were left agape. I looked around slightly. Everyone was looking around at each other. I caught Homura in the eye for only a moment, but I couldn’t stay there. No. We may love each other, but neither of us would. Or at least, I wouldn’t.

“Alright! That's all from me. You lot better give it a long and hard consideration, alright? I'm throwing you a pretty big bone! Bye-o-nara!”

Once again, leaving us alone with our thoughts.

“Wh-what… what should we do?” Yukimura had inadvertently cornered herself from backing away from the group.

“Now…” Kei took a deep breath. “Let's not panic, alright? There’s no immediate threat, we can easily get past this one.”

“A-Are you sure?” Even Amaterasu looked shaken up by this motive. Was there really someone she was thinking of taking with her? I hoped not. The last thing we needed was another murder.

“I think… we should talk it out.” Heisuke said. “Lets go to the cafeteria. _Together._

All of us went through the halls to the cafeteria. The mood was tense. 4 of our friends had already been killed and by 3 people we thought were harmless. There were only 9 of us left. Any one of us could be next. We desperately wanted to believe it wouldn’t happen again, but the thought kept gnawing at the back of my mind. Would someone take The Overseer’s offer?

 

Like a school of fish, we all arrived at the cafeteria in lockstep. The 9 of us sitting down to discuss our options.

“Alright.” I said. “So… what?”

“I mean…” Daishin fiddled with the springs of his hair. “Shouldn’t we be fine? There’s no immediate danger…”

“That may be true…” Kujou mused. “...But The Overseer is very clever, targeting our uh… bonds this time.”

Otaka wheeled himself back and forth slightly. “So… The Overseer waited til we all were good friends and…

Yukimura bit at her knuckle. “That's…” She stopped gnawing for a second. “...terrible.”

“Well.” Amaterasu cracked her neck, and put her goggles up. “We’re really up shit creek now, huh? We gotta worry about accomplices and the like.”

“Huh?” Amai turned to her. “What do you mean?”

“Well.” Amaterasu put her goggles back down. “Any 2 people can just work together, right? Fake Alibi’s… covering tracks…”

The crowd fell into a deep silence. “Ok!” Heisuke said. He seemed quite annoyed. “Lets figure out how to fix this then?!”

“Heisuke…?” I asked. “Are you alright?”

“Just FINE Waruki!” He shouted.

“Hey!” Kei called out. “We’re all nervous here, alright? Don’t go taking it out on other people! Especially not Kimiko!”

“So you two are that close, huh?” He asks, before sitting back down. “I was serious about thinking of solutions though.” I could see Heisuke’s knuckles whiten as he gripped his chair, even if he seemed calm. Was this motive really affecting him this badly?

“Hmm…” Daishin scratched at his chin. “I think… I have an idea.”

“An idea?” Amai asked.

“Ok! So! If the buddy system isn’t gonna work, how about a buddy +1 system?” Daishin counted up everybody.

“We do have 9 of us here…” Otaka confirmed his count.

“So you’re suggesting we split into 3 groups of 3?” Kujou asked.

“That's right!” Daishin beamed to himself. “I mean, unless anyone has any other ideas?”

Nobody spoke up.

“Alright.” Heisuke stood up. “We still need to decide the groups though…”

“Hmm…” Amaterasu raised an objection. “If we let people pick themselves, then they might collude, right?”

“Th-that is a p-problem…” Yukimura looked from side to side.

“Hmm…” Amai twirled his ponytail. “I… think I have an idea.”

 

Amai left to the kitchen, returning mere seconds later. In his hands gripped tightly he had 9 Popsicle sticks in his hand.

“What are these?” asked Kei.

“So, on each stick, there’s either no marks, 1 mark, or 2 marks in the end. I used a pen!”

“Ooh!” Otaka wheeled himself closer to Amai. “So the groups are randomized, right?”

“Seems like a good idea” Heisuke said.

“Alright then.” Daishin said. “Lets see here…”

I approached Amai and took a stick.

  


After everyone had gotten a straw and compared with one another we were finally into our groups. I had been paired up with Yukimura and Otaka. Kei, Amai, and Kujou were also together. Its the same with Daishin, Heisuke, and Amaterasu. Nobody had any complaints or tried to trade with another, so it was clearly an alright grouping.

“Alright.” I said, taking the initiative. “So, all we have to do is stay around each other, right?”

“Uhm…” Yukimura raised her hand. “That sounds… easier than… in p-practice…”

“Yeaaaahhh.” Heisuke lowered his head. “You just expect us to sleep together? Go to the bathroom together?”

“I think…” Kujou nodded. “Like, with leniency, yeah. Obviously not going to the bathroom but, there’s nothing stopping us from sleeping in the same room, right?”

“It is getting close…” I said. It was around suppertime now.

“2 of us’ll just have to use the floor, I suppose.” Amaterasu said, sullenly.

Otaka spoke up next. “I'm sure the other 2 can wait outside if someone needs to use the washroom.”

“Heheh…” Amai seemed to finally be lightening up. “This… this is going to work… I can feel it.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Yukimura and Daishin whispering to each other. What were they up to? I knew they were close, but...

“Hey, is everything alright?” I asked.

“Huh?!” Yukimura turned to us, flustered from being caught.

“Ah, Yukimura just- wanted to hang out, and these teams make it a bit hard. You understand, right?” Daishin flashed me a smile.

“Ah…” I scratched behind my ears. That was a problem…

“Why don’t we go somewhere together then?” Otaka proposed. “There’s still time before night, right?”

“Sure.” Replied Heisuke, before turning to the other group. “You guys in?”

“No.” Kei replied, bluntly. “I believe we should go prepare our rooms. After all, I do not wish for Kujou or Amai to sleep on the ground.”

“Ah.” Kujou seemed surprised by this development. “I mean, alright.”

“Oh! We should do that too then!” I said. I turned to Yukimura and Otaka. “Are you guys alright with it?”

“S-Sure!” Yukimura seemed to like the idea of redecorating one of our rooms.

“Alright!” The same could be said of Otaka.

“Alright, sweet, see you 3 in a bit!” Heisuke and Daishin waved us off, but Amaterasu seemed discontented. Hooooo boy, this wasn’t going to end well, is it?

 

In the end, the 3 of us decided to use Otaka’s room. Otaka didn’t mind sleeping in his chair, while Yukimura got the bed. In the meantime, I made myself a pseudo-mattress out of blankets and pillows. It was more like a nest though. It was a very nice setup. I figured that since both of the other groups were co-ed as well, then there was no problem. Its not like we were trying to share the same bed.

Speaking of groups, it really was about high time that we went to go see the other group. Yukimura and Daishin did seem to want to meet up, for whatever reason. I wanted to meet them, even Amaterasu. Maybe this would give me the opportunity to apologize.

The 3 of us left the room. Of course, due to Otaka’s impairment and Yukimura’s tentative nature, I took the lead.

The 3 of us together went up to the 4th floor. Yukimura told us that they wanted to meet up in the 1st Study room. I suppose there was a lot there that I didn’t see. It was quite the well stocked study.

I walked into the room, Heisuke and Daishin by the door, while Amaterasu was flipping through a book. I turned around to greet Heisuke and Daishin when I saw Yukimura and Otaka outside, not coming into the room.

“Hey, what are you-?”

“Sorry Waruki, this is for your guys’ own good!” Daishin called, before he and Heisuke left, closing the door behind them.

“Huh? Oh Hell No!” Amaterasu took notice immediately and rushed the door, trying to jiggle it open. The doors didn’t lock though, so one of them must have been holding it shut. “Come on! Open the fuck up!”

“You aren’t leaving til you two make amends!” called Heisuke from the other side.

“Aren’t we supposed to stay together?” I asked.

“W-We’re still here…” answered Yukimura from the other side of the door.

 

Amaterasu took a deep breath in. ”Fucking assholes…”

“H-hey…” I said. “Its…-”

“Don’t talk to me!” She snapped back.

I backed off a bit, but tried to hold my ground. I started to have regrets. “They aren’t going to open up the door and you know it.” I replied. “Come on, lets settle this, like adults.”

Amaterasu pushed up her goggles in order to pinch the bridge of her nose. She let out a deep sigh. “Alright… alright… I suppose you wouldn’t be up for just pretending we’re chummy just to let us out then, huh?”

“Amaterasu…” I said, softly. “I want to make it up to you, honestly.”

“Why?” She asked me, accusingly. “Tell me, why?”

“I I just, I feel so guilty about it, and I haven’t-” Before I could finish my sentence though, Amaterasu cut me off.

“See? That's the kind of shit that pisses me off! “I” this and “I” that. You’re only doing this to make yourself feel better, aren’t you?” Amaterasu snapped at me.

I was taken aback by Amaterasu’s accusation. “What? No! I did something wrong and I want to try and fix it!” I pleaded.

Amaterasu grumbled. “Its not like you have a memory wiping machine. I asked you specifically not to tell anybody, but-”

“I did it to help Yukimura! I said I was sorry!” I could feel my heart racing. I didn’t like fighting with people one bit, but it seemed I had no other choice.

“You’re sorry, but you try to justify yourself?” Amaterasu asked. “You can’t be truly sorry if you are trying to convince me you did nothing wrong.”

I continued to try and calm Amaterasu down. “I couldn’t just leave her there! Alone, hurting, I-i'm sorry! I don’t know what else I could have done.”

Amaterasu sighed. “Yeah, yeah, I get that. I really do. However, it spread, the least you could have done is- is tell her not to tell anyone else, and, like, tell me what happened instead of hiding it! I can’t trust you with anything!”

“I said I was sorry!” I felt tears starting to well up in my eyes.

“There’s that word again, sorry. Its meaningless! The road to hell is paved in good intentions, at least admit you did something bad! “Sorry” doesn’t fix broken trust. Sorry doesn’t fix the fact that people can take advantage of my alcoholism and kill me now, Waruki!”

“I…” I was speechless.

Amaterasu finally cracked. I looked away for only a moment, but came back to her taking a swig.

“I… what… what can I say to make it up to you…?” I asked. I was desperate for the solution.

Amaterasu looked away, putting her flask back in her sweater. “Its going to take a lot more than just words, Waruki. This isn’t some fairytale. You **hurt** me. Betrayed my trust. I have the right to not forgive you on the drop of a dime! Hell, I was _slapped_ because I didn’t want to forgive you. That's- no. I don’t care about the others. I can decide whether to forgive you or not, and I don’t want to. Not right now.”

“B-but…”

“No means no Waruki! You aren’t entitled to my forgiveness! I don’t have an obligation to be chummy around someone that hurt me! It takes time to regain trust! Can’t you just leave me alone? I don’t want any more of this!”

 

I sat there, speechless, warm tears running down my eyes. I watched as Amaterasu yanked the door open, sending Heisuke falling to the floor. He got up, before Daishin and him ran after her. Otaka and Yukimura entered the room slowly.

“W-Waruki? Are you all… right…?” Yukimura came up to me and used her sleeve to dry my tears. “Uhm… we… c-could hear her… all the way from outside…”

“Maybe… uhm… ” Otaka said. “We should just… go back to the room… take it easy…”

I didn’t reply to them. I just stared into my own hands as Yukimura propped me up. I failed. I couldn’t make it better.

The world was spinning around me from Amaterasu’s words. It felt like one scene was meshing into another. A series of scenes, with no connection. Hall. Elevator. Hall. Room.

I felt myself falling into the mess of blankets and pillows I now called a bed before I knew it. The comfort from the sheets did nothing through, the tears wouldn’t stop flowing. My mind was racing with thoughts about Amaterasu. About everybody. If this is how she felt about me, could Amai feel the same way? What if I messed up again and I had even Daishin or Kujou hate me?

“Uhm…” Yukimura held up a book. On it were 2 people holding yellow fuzzy objects, with an evil witch in the background. I didn’t pay much attention to it. “Do you uhm… want me… to r-read? M-maybe it… it’ll calm things down a bit…?”

“Sure!” Otaka said, eagerly. “I’d uh… like that, wouldn’t you, Waruki?”

Once again, I didn’t answer. I elected instead to bury my face in a pillow.

“O-okay…” Regardless of my lack of an answer, Yukimura began to read. I wasn’t paying attention. It was a childrens book. Did Yukimura bring children’s books? Not that it mattered. It talked about warm fuzzies and cold pricklies. Even if I had fuzzies… could I even give any anymore? It didn’t feel like it...

 

The rest of the evening was a blur. I couldn’t tell time passing from time moving at the speed of molasses. I messed up today. I messed up and couldn’t take it back. I messed up back then, and words alone weren’t going to fix my problem.

I knew that I was in the wrong in this situation, and not the kind where the hero of a story thinks they’re wrong but surprise the other was in the wrong the entire time. This wasn’t a fairytale. I screwed up. I more than screwed up, I hurt Amaterasu. I had no idea how she was feeling. Why should I be feeling bad when she’s the one hurt?

I really wanted nothing more in that moment to stop existing. I desperately needed to do something, but could I even do anything? Could I do anything anymore?

I'm not really sure when I passed out.

 

**Nyeeeh, How many times am I going to have to do this? You all know what this means anyways, and what time it is. Wake up!**

 

As it turned out in my case, a nights rest was rather… invigorating. My mind filled up Perhaps I needed that verbal kick-in-the-ass to get my shit together, because I felt ready to do anything today. No more messing things up. No more screwing things up. It was time for the NEW Waruki! The one that loves and cherishes her friends!

“Hey Otaka!” I called. “Do you need help with getting up? Did you sleep right?”

He looked at me rather strange. It was probably the sleepiness. “Ah, Its fine... “

I nodded, looking up towards Yukimura. “How about you, Yukimura?”

“Huh?” She looked up, trying to brush the hair out of her face. “Ah… its fine…”

Despite my peppy energy, they both took a bit longer to get out of bed.

“Cmon! Lets go! Lets get breakfast!” I called out, urging them to come along. I was practically boucing with energy.

 

In the hall, I met Daishin. Probably the only one as peppy as me in the morning. Heisuke and Amaterasu were behind him, but I tried not to meet Amaterasu in the eye.

“Dang, you got up on the right side of the bed, didn’t you Waruki?” He said to me, smiling.

I smiled right back at him. “Sure did, Daishin! I’ve never felt better!”

For a second though, I felt it. That twinge of fakeness. It was fake, wasn’t it? This facade I was putting on? I felt like death inside, but...

No! If I thought of doing this, then it can’t be fake!

 

The 3 of us went into the Kitchen. I had offered to get Yukimura and Otaka’s breakfast for them, but it seemed like they should be in the kitchen with me. I couldn’t argue with that. If we were going to be serious about the group thing, then it was ok

“Alright! What do you all want?” I asked.

“Uhm… I can get my own Waruki, i'm not incapable.” Otaka said.

“Aww, I'm just trying to help out a friend!” I saw him heading for the fridge and opened it. He gave me that weird look again, but I smiled. I wanted to be a good friend.

I turned around to see Yukimura pouring a bowl of oatmeal. “Ah! I can get that!” I said. I took the bowl and carried it for her out to the cafeteria.

“Uhm…” She simply stammered meekly as I carried her meal in.

As I was walking into the cafeteria, I saw Amaterasu in the corner of my eye. She seemed amused at what I was doing. She smirked for a second, before looking away to her own breakfast. It made the anxiety rush through my head again. My smile dropped.

“Uh… Waruki?” Yukimura asked me.

I brought my cheerful demeanor back on. “Oh! Yeah!” I set her oatmeal back down. Otaka was close behind with his protein shake. Everyone was in the cafeteria now, eating together.

It was at this point that had realized that in my selflessness I forgot to get something for myself.

Kei must have known this too, since she offered me some of hers. I didn’t know what I’d do without Kei. I'm glad that someone like her still cared about me.

“Hey,” She asked me, in a hushed tone. “Are you alright?”

“Huh?” I asked. “Of course!” I beamed at her.

It seemed she could sense the fakeness in my smile. “If something bothering you, you can tell me, you know. I understand we’ve been separated because of these groups but… you seem… off”

I nodded my head, a little too enthusiastically. “Of course! I'll let you know, Kei!” I was already in this. This is who I was. I couldn’t drop it so suddenly, not in front of everyone. Not yet.

Our group was, surprisingly, the last one out of the cafeteria. Was there somewhere that the other groups had to be?

As Otaka and Yukimura finished their means, I got up, taking their dishes. “I’ve got it!” I said.

“Waruki…” Otaka began. “Really, it’s alright. I am perfectly fine… Don’t push yourself.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it! You’ve got that wheelchair, its the least that I could do to help out!” I said. Both Yukimura and Otaka shot an odd glance at eachother for a second when I said that. I didn’t think I said anything wrong?

When I took her dishes though, Yukimura didn’t raise any objections. Perhaps either because she didn’t have any objections or didn’t want to voice them. She simply looked at Otaka in that same worried expression.

“Waruki-” He began. “...nevermind.”

“Trust me. Its the least I can do.” I assured Otaka. I took them into the kitchen and loaded the dishwasher.

 

After that, Otaka had the idea of going back to the 4th floor, since he still hasn’t seen everything there. I had went in and called the elevator for those two, and pressed the button. I wanted to be the biggest help I could be to our group! The 3 of us made our way first to the Clothes store.

“Ah!” Otaka said. “Hey, see that shirt over there?” He pointed to another tank top, like the kind he usually wears.

“I’ll get it!” I said, cheerilly. I saw him start to wheel himself over to the shirt, but I wasn’t going to let this chance to be nice and helpful pass me up.

“No- Waruki!” It was too late though, I had already retrieved the shirt. Otaka looked… strangely displeased.

“I'm telling you, I don’t need your help, Waruki. I know you mean well, but-"  
  
I was listening to Otaka, but noticed Yukimura struggling to reach something. Cutting him off accidentally, I walked away from the conversation to help Yukimura. “I’ve got that for you!” I said, grabbing a hat off the top shelf. “Here you go, Yukimura!”

Yukimura barely even said thanks to me. She just sputtered out an. “A-alright…” and walked back towards Otaka. As I looked his direction, I could see him calling for me.

“Waruki!!” I noticed him say. “Come here please!!”

Yes! Another opportunity! I rushed over. “Need something, Otaka?” I asked.

“You… don’t have to do everything for us, you know.” He said. “I want to do it myself. I'm not helpless just because of my accident…”

Then, I did something impulsive, and stupid. The last day and a half was already horrible for me, and my emotions were high strung, so its no wonder I did something so… not good. It would come to be my first mistake of the day.

“No!!” I called out, rejecting Otaka’s words. “I want to help you, Otaka!” I said, cutting him off. “I want to be a better friend to you, to Yukimura. To you all! I'm going to help you all!”

Otaka took a deep breath in, and a deep breath out. “I… I understand. Hey, Waruki, lets go for a walk, alright? Cmon Yukimura.”

 

The both of us walked out of the store, and to near the elevators. It turned out that there was a little commons area with a bench, between the end of the studies and the turnoff to the elevator. On our way there, we passed the other group again.

“Ah!” Yukimura said, waving to Amai. “H-Hello!”

“What are you three up here for?” Kujou said.

“J-just sort of… talking…” Yukimura replied.

“A fair warning, the other 3 are in there as well.” Kei said, gesturing to the first study.

“I-its alright.” Otaka said. “We’re just sitting.”

“Alright.” Amai said. “Well, we’re gonna be in one of the studies too, just let us know if something happens.”

And just like that, the 3 of them were gone.

 

Otaka turned to me. “Waruki…”

I could feel my chest tightening, but I did my best to keep a straight face. “Y-yes?”

Otaka looked down at his chair. “I know i'm… like this now, but… its just as I said. I really don’t need any extra help. I'm being honest with you. Really.”

“Huh?” I replied. “I thought you’d appreciate…-”

Yukimura cut in. “Well… its nice… but it can be kind of… infantilizing… and ableist…”

My mind started racing again, at the thought of screwing up another friendship. “N-No!” I blurted out. “I-I'm sorry! I didn’t want to! I just wanted to help you! I swear!”

Otaka looked even more annoyed now. “I'm not mad at you, I’m just trying to help you!” I listened to his words but couldn’t believe them. His face betrayed his words, right? My throat dried up as I impulsively tried to defend myself.

“I-I never meant to be like that! I swear!” I called out. “P-Please! I W-Wasn’t trying to be harmful!”

Otaka winced as I got louder, seeming to raise his voice as well. “I know Waruki, but you still did! I'm just saying!” He looked upset with me, I didn’t like that look. The same look I got yesterday. From Amaterasu. It was happening again and I **knew** it.

Yukimura bit her knuckle again. “Uhm… I-I can’t…” her face was going pale. I looked to her and saw this.

“Oh n-no no its alright Yukimura!” I ran over to her and tried to reassure her, but her breathing got heavier.

Otaka spit something out once again, as impulsive as I was being. It seemed the tension that held us all apart was finally starting to split. “D-Don’t dodge the question! I’m trying to talk to you! Get back here!”

I turned back to him. “N-No, I-”

I held my face in my hands. It was going wrong. It was all going wrong. I was ruining everything, I thought.

In moments like these, it's always good to keep a calm composure. Take a deep breath, and breathe. Calm yourself.

 

I was not able to spare a second to get that luxury. Not before the next catastrophe happened.

 

First, I heard Yukimura screaming. I froze. I figured she was starting to have a panic attack from Otaka and I’s fighting. I was wrong. I watched as a strange figure, tall and donning a plague doctor’s costume, rushed past me. I stood and did nothing. The coat was made of wings, and it had a black hat on. It grabbed Otaka by the back of his wheelchair and took him away. I heard him screaming and shouting, and yet, I just watched. 

That was mistake number 2. I couldn’t do anything. I could have ran after the atrocious plague doctor and saved Otaka, but I didn’t. I was already too tense. I froze. I did nothing but stare as the figure turned the corner. Maybe... if I did... it wouldn't have happened. I wanted to run after it, I really did! I wanted nothing more than to go and apprehend but... I couldn't.

Nothing. I felt nothing, I could do nothing. The world seemed fake. Was I standing? No, I was sitting on the bench. When did that happen? Did time pass while I was out? What had happened? I had felt like my anxieties blew a big bubble in my heart, but it had burst. I couldn’t feel them anymore. I couldn’t feel much of anything.

 

Eventually, I managed to regain the ability to move. I looked around, grounding myself. Next, I managed to relearn how to speak. “...Yukimura?” I called. No answer. I looked behind me. She wasn’t there anymore. I broke the rule. We all broke the rule.

With a heavy heart, I managed to get to my feat. My steps were slow, and sluggish. The one thing that wasn’t racing was my heart. My heart was racing as I crept towards the first study. It was silent, but the door was open slightly ajar. Strange… very strange… I looked inside.

Normally, in moments like these, I would scream, or freeze. Anything. Not this time though. All I could muster was a weak break out as I stared at the sight that was in the room.

 ...

Takai Amaterasu… slumped over the desk, blood dripping from her head.

 

…

 

…

 

…

 

…

 

…

 

…

 

Hold on. Something wasn’t right.

 

I groggily moved forward to check. From where I was standing, it looked like she was moving. I took her wrist and put my fingers lazily to it. Sure enough, there was a pulse.

Not dead, but injured. A nasty head wound from the looks of it. She was slumped over on the desk, but Heisuke and Daishin were nowhere in sight.

My heart felt like it’d explode, betraying the dead look on my face. She got up as I shaked her a bit. I couldn’t see her eyes from behind the goggles, but I could feel them piercing into me.

“Where… is everyone?” She asked. She didn’t seem mad though. She looked worried. She got up and joined me. It was likely she was still out of it. I could see writing near her. The word “Twelve” was written.

“I.. don’t know.” I said, breathily.

“Well- Cmon!” She put our differences aside for the moment and checked the other rooms. Nothing in the second, but in the third…

The next horrifying sight of the day laid before us.

...

No... this wasn't right either.

The form of the SHSL Ice Cream Man, Kichirou Amai. I immediately noticed Amai’s chest. He was still breathing. “Shit!” Amaterasu called out. “Amai, Are you alright? Amai! C’mon!” I looked. More writing. “12” it said.

The 2 of them got up, mostly from Amaterasu’s help. She had shaken him more roughly than I had shaken her, but it worked. Of course I was help to nobody. They were talking amongst themselves, but it wasn’t much.

“Where… where are the others?” He asked. I looked out of the corner of my eye to see the Laundry room have shapes in it.

We all made our way there. Everyone else was there. Were they all there? No… they weren’t all here. Otaka was definitely missing, but who else? I didn’t want to make out who else was missing. Everyone who had gathered in the laundry room were all crowded around something.

 

Slumped up against the laundry machines was the figure of a bird. It was the same one. The same one that stole away Otaka. The same one that I couldn't stop. That I failed to stop.

“This…” Heisuke said. “Is that… Twelfth Ender, do you think?” He said, pointing towards the body and the number on the wall.

“I’ve never heard of such a person…” Kei rebutted. “But we have been looking for a 17th Student...

“Should… Should someone take that costume off?” asked Daishin.

“...I will.” I said. An attempt to try and keep myself useful to others. They all looked at me, and I could see it. Fear in their eyes. Everyone had it. We had all broken. We were all struck til we bent at the knee of despair.

 

Reluctantly, I pushed my way to the front of the crowd, bending down near the figure. My movements were still slow and jagged, but faster now. I could feel my energy coming back. But from energy came fear. I touched the bird. They were unmoving. This… This was definitely the one that accosted Otaka. There was no longer any doubt in my mind. I held that memory tightly. With a deep breath in, I gripped the costume and began to take it off, to uncover the identity of such a beast. I held my breath as the costume slid off of the figure’s chest. And then...

...

 

 

** **

****Ding Dong Dong Ding!**** ****  
**  
** “ _A Body Has Been Discovered!”_

 

With a sharp breath out, reaffirming my existence, nothing still felt real.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fuck


	22. Chapter 4: Double Or Nothing (Deadly Life)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Hey! You can probably already see from the description, but this Fangan now has an official Discord!
> 
> You can join it by clicking here: https://discord.gg/egv3sNU
> 
> Thanks for your continued support of the fic! Please enjoy the Investigation!

I couldn’t tell what was happening anymore.

 

I stood there, gripping the costume as the others advanced towards the body of our friend, Yuki Yukimura. She was dead. It happened again.

It happened again it happened again it happened again it happened again it happened again in happened again it happened again it happened again it happened again.

I found myself frozen in spot once again.

I saw as Kujou and Otaka came in late, I heard their shouts of fear at seeing Yukimura. I felt as they all shoved past me. They were too late. They always were.

I gripped the costume tightly, as if to try and hold on desperately to reality itself. Breathe in, breathe out, Waruki.

I took a step forward. I looked down at Yukimura, head dripping with blood. Someone killed her.

The Overseer stood in the doorway to the Laundry room. Its eyes filled with a malicious glee. Cackling like it always did.

“Alright! I'm glad one of you took the bait!”

Nobody said anything. Nobody held their tongue. Nobody had anything to say.

“...Nothing? No screams? No crying?"

Silence. All of us just turned to stare at the robot. It looked a little depressed at our lack of a reaction. Despite our best efforts, it couldn’t be stopped. There was no more anger, no more harsh feelings.

Just Despair.

“Ok ok look!” It called out. “I get the death of your friends is all depressing and junk, but don’t give up yet, alright? Chop Chop! The trial’s soon!”

The words coming out of The Overseer’s mouth was certainly strange. It… almost sounded like he was helping us? That couldn’t be true though… if it really wanted to help us, it would set us free.

I felt the buzz of my eyePhone signifying the arrival of the next Seerfile. That's good. I… I still felt a deep heaviness in my entire body though. I could barely bring my arm to my pocket to grab it.

I looked around. Even Kei was speechless. At least she had managed to get to her eyePhone. I couldn’t bring myself to do something. Not yet, not anything.

I stumbled for a couple moments, a sharp throbbing pulsating through my head. Everything had happened in such a short amount of time. Otaka’s kidnapping, finding Amaterasu and Amai like that, something really really bad had happened here.

I leaned up against the wall trying to gather my thoughts. I had my arm spread against the wall, my head leaning into the crook of it. I didn’t want anybody seeing me like this. I had to do something, anything to make my head stop spinning.

Suddenly, I felt a hand touch my shoulder. It was enough to make me jump and cry out, but instead of a large shout came out a tiny whimper. Was I really that shaken up?

I turned around, to see Daishin. He had no smile on his face, but he looked rather concerned.

“Waruki…” he said. “Are you alright? You look pretty out of it…”

“Yeah…” I said. “I… I’ll be fine.” I looked up at him and tried to force my most convincing smile. Judging from his lack of response, I must not have done a very good job.

“Everyone else has already started…” He said. “Are you sure you’re going to be fine?”

I wanted to say I would be fine. I wanted to be good, I wanted to be able to stand up and face the murderer that killed Yukimura, but I couldn’t. I simply faced away from him and told him that I wasn’t sure if I could.

“Hmm…” Daishin began to ponder. “Here, I’ll help you Waruki, alright?” He asked me, rhetorically. No matter what I said, I knew that he would help me. He propped me up and pulled out his eyePhone.

“If you’re going to fret, we should at least get you up to speed…” he said. I had my eyePhone too. At last, I clicked on the Seerfile icon, and scrolled down to “Seerfile 4”

 

_The Victim is Yuki Yukimura, the Super High School Level Skier. The approximate time of death is 2:12 in the afternoon. The location of the body is in the 4th floor laundry room. The victim has sustained 1st degree burns along her abdomen, and shows signs of strangulation. The victim also suffers from a cracked head._

 

[SEERFILE 4) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

My heart felt heavy as I read those words. It felt as if it would tear through my chest at any moment and fall to the floor.

“Hmm…” Daishin inspected the words carefully. “This... “ even he was at a loss for words.

“Theres… so many injuries…” I said. “That's… that seems like a bit of overkill… don’t you think…?”

“You’re tellin me.” He said. “But…”

“...But?” I asked. “Is something up, do you know something?”

“Well…” He said. “The culprit… was wearing that costume.” He pointed to the floor.

“Huh?” I looked to the floor. It was that costume. A Plague Doctor’s outfit, that I remember coming from the Clothes Shop. I also remember that the perpetrator that took away Otaka was wearing this outfit as well. “What about it?” I asked. “How do you know that the culprit was wearing it?”

“I… was attacked.” Daishin said, showing off his trademark nervous laugh. “Amaterasu was at the desk, while I was looking at some books. Heisuke was by the door. I guess he wanted to “Keep a Lookout” or something? That's when I noticed someone come in and hit us with one of those big books!” he said. He rubbed his head. “Heisuke and I were hurt, so we panicked and ran.” I saw Daishin looking regrettably towards Amaterasu as she was leaving the Laundry Room. “I kinda regret running now but… at least she’s alright.”

 

[PLAGUE DOCTOR ATTACK) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

“Right…” I said. “Well… you’re right that she’s not dead but… she and Amai probably got it the worst... “

“Yeah…” Daishin noticed Amai’s head wound as well. “Nothing can be done about it now though.”

“You’re right.” I said. I felt like I was getting back into the swing of things. I still felt awful, but with Daishin there to help me out, I figured it would be alright.

I saw Daishin bend down to Yukimura’s body. “What… are you doing?” I asked.

He gingerly touched Yukimura’s head. “The Seerfile described injuries… I wanted to confirm that it wasn’t lying.”

Judging by the head wound, that part was correct. As he pulled down the neck of Yukimura’s bodysuit, we could see… strangulation marks. Just as the Seerfile had said. A large red mark ran around the front of Yukimura’s neck.

“That's strange though…” he said.

“What?” I asked.

“Usually when you strangle someone, it goes all the way around, right? However, look.”

I bent down to inspect Yukimura’s neck. The red mark only went halfway around the neck, the lines pointed upwards diagonally a bit, but stop by the crook of the jaw. It went across the front of her throat, but the rather thick looking red mark wasn't on the back of her neck at all.

 

[HALF NECK MARK) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS.

 

“What… could have caused this?” I asked.

“I couldn’t say… but… there’s one more thing I wanted to check.” Daishin said, before pulling up Yukimura’s coat.

Below it was the red full body suit that Yukimura had always worn. It must have been really warm. Come to think of it, it was pretty abnormally warm in the Laundry room as well.

“Hmm…” Daishin looked. “I think… we’re just going to have to believe the file on this one. I don’t really want to uuh… undress her.”

“No, no, that's understandable.” I said. “It hasn’t lied to us so far, so I don’t think it would.”

“Yeah…” Daishin stared at her body for a couple more moments as I tried to distance myself from it. They were good friends, weren’t they?

As I was backing up though, I noticed something. The laundry signup list. “Hmm?” On it was a bloody “12.” The same number that was written in blood beside Amaterasu and Amai. It looks like the last time it was used, Kujou, Heisuke, and Yukimura were set to do laundry, as its their names written on here, in each of their respective handwriting.

 

[CALLING CARD 1) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS.

 

“Hey…” Daishin asked. “Hold on a moment…” He pointed towards the floor. “Whats… that?”

I looked. A small ways away from Yukimura lay alone blood stain. It didn’t look like it was from anything though… and it was too far away to be from random dripping off of Yukimura’s head… so what was it from?

 

[BLOODSTAIN) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

“Well…” Daishin said. “I'm sure… we’ll figure it out later. Lets-ACK!”

I saw as Daishin had tripped over the Plague Doctor’s costume, and fall onto the floor.

“Oh!” I said. I slowly made my way over to him. “Are… are you alright…?”

“Ye-yeah…” He said. He probably at most had a bruised elbow. “We really should pick that thing up though…”

“Ah- alright.” I bend down to pick up the Costume. As I was laying it down though, I noticed something odd about it.

“Hey… there’s blood on this thing.” I said.

“Well… yeah.” Daishin replied. “Whoever was in there was hitting people with it after a-”

“No!” I interrupted. “Like, on the inside of it.”

“The… inside?” He said.

“Its… just odd…” I said. I was starting to lose my confidence again, I could feel it, even though I might have just discovered something big.

 

[COSTUME BLOODSTAINS) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

“Hmm… I think…” Daishin started trailing his words off.

“You… think?” I asked him, quietly.

“I think… that that's everything…” he said.

“Huh?” I asked him. “How… do you know?”  
  
“Well, I’ve looked practically everywhere.” He said. “And I haven’t found anything, but there’s a chance I could have missed something. How about you, you find anything else?”

“Well… no.” I said.

“So… that's that then.” He said. “There’s probably a lot more to do though.”

“Yeah.” I replied. “I think… uhm… maybe… the studies?”

“Oh, yeah!” He said, peppily. “You’re right! See, You’re doing fine, Waruki!”

I blushed a little, both out of embarrassment and happiness. I did appreciate Daishin’s attempts to cheer me up.

“Ah- alright…” I said. “Lets uhm… let's… go then.”

 

The two of us exited the Laundry room and went down the hall towards the studies. Outside of the first one though was Amaterasu. She didn’t seem too upset to see me. She seemed more preoccupied on nursing her head and keeping herself occupied than hating my guts and for that, I am thankful.

“Hey there.” Daishin said. “You feeling any better? Looks like you took quite a hit.”

“Yeah, it just hurts…” she said. “It’ll be fine though, but, I should probably bandage it before the trial.”

“H-Hey.” I said, grabbing my courage.

“ _What?_ ” She snapped. I flinched back a bit.

“Hey hey.” Daishin said. “Let her speak.”

Amaterasu sighed. “Fine. What do you want?”

“I just, uhm… wanted to know what happened… with your head.”

“Fine, yeah alright. I was sitting and reading, but then I heard Daishin here- Heisuke too- panicking. Before I could turn and see the ruckus, I’m out cold. Does that help?”

“Y-Yes, actually. Th-thank you Amaterasu.”

“Hmph.” She still seemed upset with me, but at least I could confirm Daishin’s story with this.

 

[PLAGUE DOCTOR ATTACK) HAS BEEN UPDATED IN YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

Amaterasu walked away, presumably to nurse her wound, and the two of us entered the first study.

“Hmm…” I walked up to the desk. On it, in blood, was the word “Twelve.” Much like the one we found in the Laundry Room, only written out.

 

[CALLING CARD 2) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS.

 

“What do you think?” I asked Daishin.

“Hmm… Maybe its like… a serial killer?” He responded.  
  
“I think a serial killer would be a bit cliche at this point... “ Despite saying that, I couldn’t discount the possibility. It made my blood run cold.

“I-is that all in here…?” I asked.

“Hmm…” He looked at the book that had blood on it. That must have been what the Plague Doctor used to hit her, but it must not have been all that important.

“Yeah… lets go.” The two of us left the room.

 

As we passed the second room, I stopped. “Hey.” I said. “Should we… peek inside?”

“Well… I don’t see why not.” Daishin said.

Peeking into the room, nothing was out of place, except for Kei and Heisuke poking around.

“Kei!” I called out.

Kei turned around, only for her face to brighten up as she saw me. “Ah! Kimiko! Are you alright?”

She took me into her arms. “Y-yeah… I’m just… shaken up… is all…” I’d have time later to tell Kei about the problems I’ve been having with others. For now, we’ve had a lot more pressing issues to deal with.

“Glad you’re ok.” Heisuke goes. “Head still hurts, personally.”

“Yeah… I heard about that… what… happened after?” I asked.

Kei replied to me this time. “After hearing the ruckus, Kujou and I went to investigate. That's… my fault. No matter. I met Heisuke after he was attacked, and we were together the rest of the time before discovering the body.”

“She tells the truth.” Heisuke confirmed.

 

[KEI AND HEISUKE’S ALIBI) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS.

 

“So…” I asked. Who do you think did this?” I asked.

“Well.” Heisuke said. “Personally, I think we’ve finally found this “Twelfth Ender” Person.

“Hm?” I asked. “What makes you say that?”

“I believe I follow Heisuke’s thinking.” She said. “A Seventeenth student… the prevalence of the number 12…”

“Yeah…” I really couldn’t refute that. Was the 17th student really the culprit though?

“Hey.” I turned to Daishin. He hasn’t really been making himself a part of the conversation, which was unusual to him. He seemed very intent on looking through the bookcase. He had been really that intent on solving the case, huh? He’s normally so laid back… was he and Yukimura really that close?

“Hey.” He said. “I think I found something… come check it out.”

The 3 of us go and find… a whiteboard.

“...So?” Heisuke asked. “They sure do have them here.”

“It looks fresh though…” Daishin pointed. “It says something odd.”

On the whiteboard, a little to the right, it looked like it had been erased. The only thing we could tell was a "Za" and then a "Tsu" after a little space.

“Za… tsu?” I said. “What does Za Tsu mean?”

“Zatsu tends to be a filler word.” Kei said. “It could be anything.”

 

[WHITEBOARD MESSAGE) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

“Right…” I said. “Is that all for here?”

“If so-” Daishin said. “-Lets… check the final study.”

I agreed and, with a tentative kiss, left Kei and Heisuke to their own devices.

 

Entering the third study, not much was different.

“Hmm…” I walked up the the third bloody message I’d seen today. Again, another “12.” “This is… strange…” I said.

 

[CALLING CARD 3) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

“Daishin?” I asked. “If i'm right… uhm… this is…”

“You mean the place Amai was attacked?” He nodded. “Yeah… and it seems this…” He bent down and picked up a cracked clock. “This is the weapon.”

“Ah- Thanks.” I told him. I looked at the clock. Strange. The time on the clock read “2:15”

 

[BROKEN CLOCK) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

“Alright... “ I said. “That's that then… right?”

“Right.” Daishin said.

“Hey, Daishin…” I stopped him before he left the room.

“Hm? Whats up, Waruki?” He asked me.

“You uhm… seem a bit different… today…” I asked. “Whats…”

“Ah.” His face goes grim as he closes his eyes for a couple seconds. “Its… about time I think.”

“Time…?” I asked. “Time for…”

“Its time for me to stop sitting, Waruki. Yukimura’s dead… I'm… i'm not just going to sit and take it anymore.”

He opens his eyes with the determination of a knight. “Its time for me to take back control of my fate. Come on, let's go.”

He left the room in a hurry. I followed him. The two of us quickly entered the Clothes Store. Aside from the missing costume, there was nothing of use we could find in the clothing store. That just left us to go to the Sauna.

 

On the way there, we ran into Otaka and Kujou.  
  
“H-Hey…” I said, to Kujou. Otaka and I still had our little fight from earlier. I hoped that he’d forget about it. I never was able to apologize though, so I silently hoped he wouldn’t.

“Hm?” Kujou looked up from her notebook. “Do you need something?”

“Uhm…” I couldn’t find the words.

“You guys came a bit late… did something happen?” Daishin asked them.

“I…” Otaka started. “I got taken away by that Bird... and shoved in an elevator. It pressed a button and sent me to the first floor… but it jumped out before it could come…”

“I see…” I nodded. “Kujou?”

“Oh!” Otaka blurted in. “Kujou helped me!”

“That's right.” She nodded. “I called the elevator as soon as I noticed. Thus, the both of us became late.”

“Ah…” I nodded. “That makes sense…”

 

[OTAKA/KUJOU’S ACCOUNT) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

“Thank you!” I said to them both. They both reciprocated, but Otaka found it hard to look me in the eyes. Great. I’d really need to try and fix this later.

“U-uhm...let's just… check the sauna for a second, alright?” Daishin nodded, and the both of us entered the sauna.

“Ghaaahhhh!” I cried out as I opened the door. Even the room before the real sauna had been blisteringly hot. I couldn’t imagine the temperature of inside the sauna.

“Whoa whoa whoa!” Daishin ran past me and turned the dial to the sauna colder. “Holy crap!” He shouted. “That's…”

I could feel the air around me getting colder already. “Yeah…” I looked at the door. “Huh? The door!”

The both of us looked to the door. There was a brook lodged between the handles, meaning that it couldn’t be opened at all. Someone had stuck a broom in there to block the door.

 

[BLOCKED DOOR) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS.

 

“Really?” He asked me. “That's the thing you noticed?”

“What do you mean?” I asked him.

“Look, see that on the door?” He pointed to the glass. It was hard to make out… but… there was a symbol written in fog on the inside of the door. 助, I could tell it was kanji.

“Hey... “ I could hear Otaka coming in behind us. “I… recognize that!”

“Do you?” Daishin asked.

“Yeah.” He said. “I'm a bit rusty… but… I think it means… “Jo.”

 

[DOOR MESSAGE) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS.

 

“Hm…” Jo huh? Jo… I continued to ponder the reason that “Jo” would be on the door. After a bit, I pressed my hand to the glass. Hot. Not as hot before though. I was amazed at how quickly the sauna changed. I thought back to Kujou’s words a couple days ago. If this really was a bunker, then it’d be a pretty high tech one.

Daishin and I took out the broom and entered. Despite the coolness, it still was very hot and humid in the sauna.

I looked around. Nothing really stuck out to me, until I felt a drop of hot water hit my head.

“Ah-! Huh?” I instinctually looked up to see the steam gathering in a vent. An open vent. “Its… Open…”

Daishin looked at it too. “Hm. Your right. Want me to give you a boost?”

I nodded. It certainly was suspicious, as I had never noticed it open before. Standing on Daishin’s shoulders, he lifted me up high enough so that I could see inside. The metal was rather cool for being next to a sauna. But… something else caught my interest in here.

I looked, there was a light coming just one room over, past a fork in the road. But right between this hole and the hole next to it… Yukimura’s hat, the one that sits on her head at all times, had found its way in here.

 

[YUKIMURA’S HAT) HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR TRUTH BULLETS

 

Just as I was about to reach for it though, a familiar sound rang out. I could hear it clearly, even in the vent.

“Hey Hey Hey! Its that time again! Haul yourselves down to the lab! Its showtime!”

Daishin let me down quickly, and quickly exited the room. I barely had the time to get my bearings back before he left. It made sense though. Being late for The Overseer’s summons never ended well.

Much like the others, I left too. A couple at a time, we left the floor on the elevator. Eventually, it was my turn too. Alongside Kei and Kujou, I left the elevator and made my way to the Laboratory.

 

The Laboratory had a number of “renovations” to it. The first and most notable difference is the decor this time. The Overseer must have installed a fake snow machine, since it was like a blizzard in there. It was quite cold. The second renovation I noticed came upon going to my personal witness stand. I was no longer directly in front of The Overseer. He had installed a 17th stand. Empty, in between Amai and I. This stand was now directly below The Overseer’s throne.

The third and final renovation were the new portraits of our friends. Teruachi’s portrait had a number of cuts and splatters of red paint. The stand itself being chipped and chiseled away, looking more blocky. Yukimura’s meanwhile, had a normal looking line, but crossed was what looked like an illustration of a violet.

One last time, the image of her corpse flashed through my head.

 

I had my anxieties. I had my fears. I had my apprehensions, but as I stepped into my trial stand, it all melted away. Not that I felt confident, or brave, but because I couldn’t afford to let myself falter. Not here. I had to find Yukimura’s killer.

 

 

Yukimura had always been the quiet one of our group. Hiding, shrinking into herself, she always had been the most anxious and scared of everyone. Even so, she still cared for us all. I felt she started opening up, finally. Standing up, helping others. She wanted to help. She wanted to ease us all in our time of strife.

 

 

That was her hope.

 

 

That same hope is what's going to get us through this trial. The hope that all of us can pull together and find Yukimura’s killer. The hope that all of us can work together, 7 against 1. The hope that all of us would be able to survive another deadly Class Trial. 


	23. Chapter 4: Double Or Nothing (Class Trial)

**THE CLASS TRIAL FOR THE MURDER OF YUKI YUKIMURA IS NOW IN SESSION**

 

“Now then, allow me to begin with a simple explanation of the rules. So, your votes will determine the killer! If you vote for the person who killed Yuki Yukimura, then only they will be punished, and the rest of you can continue your entrapped lives. However, if you vote for the wrong one… I will punish everyone besides the blackened and the one who deceived you all will get to leave this place. Now then, let's begin.”

 

“Before we begin.” Kujou opened, “I’d like to ask one thing. It’s about… that.” She pointed to the empty podium beside me. “Is that supposed to have someone in it?”

The Overseer rolled its singular eye. “I figure we should have it, now that you all know that there’s a 17th Student. Let me tell you though, once you or I manage to find them, they’ll stand right there!”

“Yeah…” Amaterasu nodded. “I suppose that makes sense.”

“So…” Heisuke looked around the room. “Where do you think we should start?” 

“I think…” Otaka said. “That bird, right?”

“The 17th Student…” Amai put his thumb to his mouth

“That's got to be the culprit, right?” Otaka asked.

“Now… hold on.” Kei said. “We don’t know that yet. Someone here could have just disguised themselves as this so called “17th Student.”

“Oh Yeah!” Daishin called out. “Yukimura was wearing that costume when we found her, right?"

“Does that mean…” Amaterasu looked over at the late Yukimura’s trial stand. “Yukimura disguised herself as the 17th student?”

“I'm not so sure…” I said. “I mean, I was… kind of there, right with her. And Otaka was too, right, Otaka?”

“That's right.” He said. “I was stolen away when all 3 of us were together!”

“Its 2 people backing each other up.. I think I believe it…” Kujou spun her pen in her hand.

“Not quite.” Amai said. “Remember the motive? Maybe they’re just working together…”

“But that wouldn’t make any sense!” I refuted. “We’re arguing against the fact that Yukimura is the person, There’s no reason that the 3 of us would scheme to push that narrative!”

“Hey hey hey!” Daishin shushed me. “Lets just… stay on track, alright?”

“I do think more proof would be good.” Kei said. “If there any proof that the masked fiend isn’t Yukimura, i'm all ears.”

“Hmm…” I closed my eyes in thought. “How about… the clock that Amai was hit with?”

“It hurt a lot…” Amai rubbed his head.

“What about it?” Heisuke asked.

“Well… according to the Seerfile, Yukimura died at 2:12, however, the clock that hit Amai broke when it was 2:15!”

“Perhaps…” Amaterasu thought, “Yukimura set it behind to cover her tracks?”

“Not likely.” Kujou interjected. “I doubt that, in this hypothetical scenario, Yukimura would have expected to die, thus, there would be no point to set the clock back." 

I nodded. “Thank you Kujou.” Kujou put a hand behind her neck. “Now, can we please move on?”

“Yeah.” Kei said. “There is little point accusing one that can’t be here to defend herself, after all.”

“Ok…” Otaka scratched his head. “Where should we go for this, then?”

“Lets think…” I said. “About the details behind Yukimura’s death.”

“So, what we know, basically, right?” Heisuke asked. 

“Sounds about right to me.” Kujou said. “Lets see…”

“The Cause of death... “ Amaterasu looked at her eyePhone “it doesn’t say the exact cause of death…”

“So that means that we just have to guess?” Otaka asked

“Maybe…” I thought “It had been the cracked skull? After all, its the last one listed…" 

“Yeah.” Kujou said. “Lets go with that for now.”

“I think that makes perfect sense.” Heisuke said. “Amai and Amaterasu getting bonked too.”

“That's right…” Amaterasu says. “No thanks to you not defending me, thanks for that by the way.”

“Oi!” I tapped my hand on the podium. “Let's get back on track!”

“Alright.” Kei drumrolled her fingers. “So that means Yukimura was hit in the same manner as Amaterasu and Amai, right?”

“So…” Kujou began thinking. “Yukimura walked into the laundry room for some reason… and then got hit. Is that right?”

“Actually… that isn’t, Kujou.” I said. “There’s another place that's very… suspicious. I think that Yukimura was there.”

“You mean the Sauna, right Waruki?” Daishin finishes my thought. “I’ve been trying to think of the meaning of it too.”

“Well, it was blocked, right?” Amaterasu asked.

“So… they locked Yukimura into the Sauna. I thiiinkkkk that's what that means?” Kujou said, putting the nib of her pen to her mouth.

“It would make sense.” I said. “We know this because of her other injuries. Namely, the burns on her skin that we found.”

“If you stuck anyone in a sauna that hot, anyone would get burns.” Otaka said. “Even her, and she was in some pretty warm clothes…”

“Yeesh…” Amaterasu rubbed her goggles. “This Twelfth Ender dude that did this is seriously messed up…”

“Twelfth Ender… the 17th Student…” The words said by Kei reverberated throughout the courtroom. “Who… could it be?”

“Is there anything?” Daishin asked. “There has to be something that can point us to the culprit…”

“How about…” I thought about the scene at the sauna carefully. “The message?”

“What message?” Amaterasu asked.

“Well… there was the kanji for Jo on the door.” I explained.

“Could that have to do with 12th Ender?” Kujou asked.

“Well... “ I felt a little hesitant. I had a bad feeling about this. “I don’t really think that the person that put Yukimura in there was necessarily disguised…”

“Huh?” Otaka looked at me. “What do you mean?”

“Well…” I said. “I feel like its just… too unrealistic that the person that was disguised both stole Otaka and shoved him in an elevator… and had time to catch Yukimura and force her into the sauna… it just doesn’t seem like it could happen.”

“What… are you trying to insinuate?” Heisuke asked. 

“I mean, the person that shoved her in there wasn’t disguised.” I said.

“Wasn’t disguised??” Amai looked to me. “But the sauna has a glass window, right? That must mean…”

“That's right.” I said. “Yukimura must have seen who her assailant was.”

“So that means that the message on the door…” Kujou thought. “That must be a message about their identity, right?”

“Yeah!” Daishin said. “It has to be!”

“So whoever the message is about is the killer, right?” Heisuke says. “What… was that message again?”

“It was a Jo… that's what you said, isn’t it, Kimiko?” Kei said towards me.

“That's right…” I said. “But… there’s only one person here that has a Jo in her name…” I said. My heart grew heavy as I closed my eyes. “That's… Kujou.”

The room went silent. “Wh-What?” Kujou looked shocked, dropping her pen. It seems that I had taken her completely off guard. “Me? You think the killer is me?” 

“Well…” My voice was soft. I could hear the distress in her voice. “Its just… the Jo was on the door…-”

“Just admit it already!” Heisuke, from beside me, cuts me off. “You killed her, didn’t you?”

“W-Wait…” Kujou took a step back from her podium, clutching her book and pen to her chest.

“Now hold on…” I said, trying to quell the chat.

“It was Kujou?? Really?” Amaterasu shouted. “Why the fuck would you do that?”

“Kujou…” Kei said. “Did… you really do this? Did you kill Yukimura?”

“H-Hey! Wait!” She said, eyes wide in panic. “I…” She took a deep breath. “I didn’t. I promise, you need to believe me.”

“Y-Yeah…” I said. I could see it in her eyes. It wasn’t the panic of someone that had been caught, it was the panic of someone that cared about people. About all of us. About wanting all of us to survive. “I… I believe her.”

“Really?” Kei turned to me. “You… believe…?”

Maybe it was because Kujou, during the hard times I was having, still believed in me, still held on to our friendship… but I could see it. “Yeah… I mean… there’s the list, right?”

“The list…?” Daishin asked.

“That's right!” I said. “The laundry list! It has everyone’s names! That should prove it!

Or it can prove it is definitely her name written like that...” Daishin said, softly.

“Hold on!” Amaterasu piped up. Great. “You’re just grasping at straws now! You can’t just find anything you want you know!”

“I have to agree with Amaterasu…” Amai said. “This is a trial to find the culprit… if we don’t then…”

“I'm not the culprit though!” Kujou shouted. “Really!”

“Yeah!” Otaka shouted. “Lay off of her! She rescued me after all!”

“Hey hey!” Daishin pounded his fist on the podium in front of it. “Stop! We can’t keep arguing in circles like this! We need to talk things out, alright?”

“...Alright.” Kei said. “Lets discuss this.”

I looked around the circle. I knew that Kujou wasn’t the culprit. I knew it. All I had to do was make them realize that it was true.

“Alright.” Heisuke said. “You said it yourself, the culprit had to have not been disguised.”

Kei spoke up. “That could have been anyone.” She said. “That in it of itself doesn’t mean that Kujou was the one there.”

“It doesn’t prove she wasn’t though!” Amaterasu said. “Everyone’s Alibi’s are all messed up after all." 

“She was with me when  I came back from the elevator through.” Otaka said.

“Putting someone into a Sauna doesn’t take too much time…” Daishin pondered.

“Maybe not.” I testified. “But Yukimura was killed. That would have taken much more time.”

“You can’t argue with the message though.” Amai said. It said Jo! Kujou is the only one with that kanji in her name!”

Kujou spoke up this time. “There’s more than one way to write that you know. And for the record, my name is Ku- _Jou.”_

“We can’t prove that though, can we?” Heisuke said. “The laundry list isn’t exactly here.”

“DID SOMEBODY CALL FOR A LAUNDRY LIST?” The Overseer completely cut into our conversation.

“What do you want?” Kei asked it.

“I believe in a fair trial!” It said. “If you’re gonna lose, its because you all were dumbasses and made a mistake in your logic! Not cause you had to downright guess!"

“So… what does that mean?” Daishin questioned.

“Well.. Ta-Da!” It extended its horrific robot arm, and in its hand was the laundry list. It still had the bloodied “12” but on it was a list of names, all written out.

“Hey…” I looked to Kujou. “Can I borrow an empty page?”

“Uh… Sure…” She ripped a page out of the back of her book and handed me it and the pen. I passed it to Daishin. “Can you put down what the message looked like?”

“Sure thing, Waruki!” He said, before writing it down. “My calligraphy’s pretty shaky… but… i'm fairly certain it looked a little like this!” On the page was the character [ 助 ]

“Ok…” I said. “Now… we just need to compare this to Kujou’s name on the list.” I said. We all passed it around and looked at her name. Akemi Kujou, or [九条明美] was right there for everyone to see.

“Now do you see?” I asked. “Its very likely that Yukimura was writing someone else’s name on the door, not Kujou’s!”

“But…” Amaterasu bit her thumb. “There’s nobody else that has Jo in their name…”

“...” Kujou looked at her notes silently.

“Huh?” I looked at her. “Is there something you’ve noticed?”

“Just… give me a moment, please Waruki.” She said." 

“A-Alright…” I turned. “Well... maybe someone has a fake name…?”

“Maybe!” Heisuke says. “Maybe that was the true motive for murder…”

“No… I don’t think Yukimura would have anyway of knowing that though.” said Kei, from nearby. “Instead, consider this. Kanji can often be read in a couple different ways, depending on the context.”

“So…” Daishin tried to get her to keep talking. “What are some of the other ways to read it?”

“Well… Kei said, closing her eyes and putting her hand to her chin. “Off the top of my head, there’s Jo, but also So… Suke… Tasu...-”

My eyes widened. “Hold on. Can you repeat that list, Kei?”

“Of course, Kimiko.” She said. “So, Suke, and Tasu.”

“I… I’ve got it.” I said. “I know who the culprit is.” 

“You do?” Otaka asked me.

“Hey.” I scanned around the room to see who still had the Laundry List. It was Otaka. “Can you hand me that paper, please?” 

“Uhm… sure thing…?” He said, passing it around the circle til it got to me. I could see others eyes widening, I had a feeling they were coming to the same realization. I looked down at the names written, and while one of them was a little hard to see due to the blood painted onto the sheet… had it. Hearing it said out loud just solidified my suspicion.

I looked at the paper and there he was. Muto Heisuke. [武藤兵助]

“Heisuke…” I said. “You did it, didn’t you? That's part of your name written on the door… am I right?”

Heisuke’s demeanour remained stoic, but I could see his arms crossed, and he tightened his grip. That must have hit the nail on the head. “What… no… what are you saying?”

“...” Kujou gave him a death glare, but continued to remain silent. Whatever was going on in her head, she was refusing to say for the time being.

“It was your name though.” Amai said. “That's clearly your name!”

“Maybe she didn’t know?” Heisuke asked. 

“Sorry, that isn’t going to work.” I said. “Remember, Yukimura was on there too. I doubt she wouldn’t have read the other 2 names before putting her own. That's just something people do.”

“...That's why I was attacked, wasn’t it?” Amaterasu shouted out after a couple seconds. “You weren’t attacked at all! You just hit Daishin and I and pretended so you could go kill Yukimura!” Amaterasu shouted.

Heisuke’s grip tightened for a second, before relaxing completely. “Heh… alright. Uncle.”

“U-Uncle??” Otaka looked very confused at this.

“So what, you just admit it?” Amaterasu questioned.

“Yep. You got me.” He said. “I killed her.”

“Did you now…” I looked over at Daishin. He had an anger I had never seen on his face before.

“Yep!” he said, a little chipper. It was… uncanny. “That was all me!”

Kei crossed her arms. “Explain yourself. At once.”

“Whats there to explain?” Heisuke shrugged. He let out a wheezy laugh. “I pretended to be this person, stole the costume from the costume shop. I hit Amaterasu, Amai, and killed Yukimura. Even left fake calling cards to sell it too. Twelve and all.”

“You bastard…” Kujou finally said.

“Wait…” Something about what he said didn’t really add up for me. I had to think about it some more.

“Hm?” Kei looked over at me. “Is something wrong?”

“Heisuke… you… put a calling card?” I asked him"

“Yep. Consistency is key when you’re committing a murder, after all.” He said.

“But… you weren’t consistent at all…” I said, handing him the laundry list. “That… that isn’t a 12 like Amaterasu’s at all… Amai had it too… Why would you switch to 12 instead of keeping with Twelve?”

“...Huh?” Heisuke looked confused, until he saw the laundry list. He didn’t seem to process it at first, but then he got really startled.

“Hah! Whats the matter buddy?” Daishin called out. “You messed up, didn’t you?”

“Wh-what? No!” He said. “It was me!”  
  
“You’re getting… awfully defensive about this…” Otaka said.

“Come on, Whats so hard to believe, I slipped into that costume, attacked them, and murdered Yukimura! Shoved her right in there!”

“WRONG HEISUKE!” I shouted. I was starting to get really heated about this. “You just contradicted yourself!”

“What? How!?” He said, shocked.

“Well, we know that Amai was attacked by someone in costume. If you claim that was you, then fine, however, We established that the only reason that Yukimura could write her final message was because the person that locked her in **wasn’t in costume**. So whats the truth, Heisuke?”

“I er..” Heisuke bit into his nails. “It… was just an oversight! A slip of the tongue!”

“I know the truth.” Kujou said. “This is the truth. It explains why there were 2 separate instances, one with costume and without, and why there are 2 separate calling cards. You’re covering for someone, aren’t you?”

“Eh!?” Heisuke gripped his arm even tighter.

“Yeah, it makes sense!” I said. “If we all vote for you, then I bet you and someone else would be walking straight out of here!”

“...” Heisuke’s face darkened. “Alright, Smart-alec. Tell me who then.”

“Huh?” I looked at him.

He returned my look, a devilish grin appeared on his face. “Who? You heard me. Vote for the wrong person and both of us still get to leave.”

“Well… I… Uh…” I honestly hadn’t thought about it.

“Hah!” Heisuke pounded a fist on the podium. “You really are dumb as a board!” He shouted. “Don’t you want to live?”

“Hey!” Kei retorted back to him. “Heisuke, what's gotten into you? Why are you acting like this? Explain yourself at once!”

Heisuke giggled, still smiling. “What? Can’t a guy just wanna leave in peace?”

“Lets…” Daishin coughed. “Just… ignore him for now… we need to find the actual culprit…”

“Right… right…” Kujou muttered. “Well… we’re pretty far away from any actual culprit, right? It could be anyone?”

“...” I paused. Was that really true though? Could it really be anyone?

“Well…” Otaka wheeled himself back and forth. “Lets think  about what we do know... that's how these things go, right?”

“Awww, come on!” We could hear Heisuke shout from his side of the trial room. “Can’t you just vote me and make this all over? It’d be quick and easy for all of us?”

“Can’t someone shut him up?” Amaterasu groaned.

“I think…” I said, “I have… a good idea of who Heisuke’s accomplice is…” It didn’t make sense though… they would have no reason to do something like that to Yukimura…

“...You do?” Amai asked me.

“Well…” I took a deep breath. “Think about it this way. If you were Heisuke, who would be the easiest to work with? To be able to fake this?

“...” Daishin looked surprised. “Waruki… you…”

“I…” I tried to steady my composure. “I'm sorry, Daishin. I really am… but I think you’re the culprit.”

“...” He looked down. “I… I see how it is…”

“What a nice guess!” Heisuke cut Daishin off before he could say anything else. “You sure about that though? Are you suuuuppeerrr sure? You could be killing him and yourself you know!”

Daishin looked at him with another angry look. “Heisuke, Quiet.”

“So…” Kei said. “Do you… admit it?”

“Huh?” He looked up at her, a little perplexion on his face. “I never said that…”

“Well…” Otaka looked up at Kujou. “Its like you said, this is something we have to talk out, right?”

“Yeah…” Kujou said. “If we can figure out what exactly happened then we can probably determine whether you’re deduction is right or not, Waruki.”

“Y-Yeah…” Daishin said, forcing a smile, before it melted into a genuine one. “Let's figure this out together!”

“Where… should we start though?” Amai asked us.

“Well…” I said. “I am curious how Yukimura got from the Sauna to the laundry room…”

“Eh?” Heisuke scoffed. “That's easy! She got dragged there!”

“Did she though?” Amaterasu asked. “It seems kind of… like, surely someone would have seen her?”

“I mean-” Daishin shrugged. “Maybe she did, maybe she didn’t! Who can say!”

“No, I was thinking the same, thing, Amaterasu.” I said, which got me a sour look from her, but I didn’t exactly care. “After all, when we found it, it was still blocked.”

“With all due respect, Kimiko.” Kei said, from aside, “Couldn’t they just have barricaded the door?”

“Well…” I said. “I think that would work… but everything in this happened pretty fast… and without anyone seeing anyone in the halls… Right, Kei?”

“Huh?” She closed her eyes in thought for a minute. “Oh yes… Me and… him had tried to find the screaming, after someone was hit, but we never saw anyone in the halls, did we?”

“No-Siree Ma’am!” Heisuke shouted.

“Seriously…” Amai said. “Can’t someone gag him or something?”

“And mess with my trial?” The Overseer quipped. “No way! You gotta let the man talk fair and square! You’ll have plenty of time to beat him up afterwords!”

“...Right.” Otaka said.

“I guess that means that she really didn’t go through the door.” Kujou said.

“People can’t just phase through walls though!” Amaterasu shouted. “So how?”

“Well…” Daishin thought, trying to contribute. “Was there anything else that could have pointed to where she was?”

“There was no sign of her anywhere though…” Otaka said. “Just the Sauna and the Laundry Room…

“Was there though?” Daishin asked. “Come one, Was there?”

I looked at him puzzled. It was his head on the chopping block, and yet, he seemed like he was pushing us towards the right answer. Was he really that confident, or…?

“Daishin is right.” I said. “There was… one thing.”

“A thing?” Amai said. “What kind of thing are you talking about?”

“Well” I began, “Did anyone ever notice Yukimura’s hat was missing?”\

“Oh yeah…” Otaka said. “I did… but I never really thought much of it…”

“It was in the vents, above the Sauna.” I said.

“...What?!” Heisuke shouted. “What was it doing there?!”

“As if you don’t know!” retorted Amaterasu.

“So…” Otaka put a hand behind his neck. You’re saying she went through the vents?”

“Its what it implies.” Kei said.

“But that brings another problem, doesn’t it?” Kujou said, tapping her pen against her book.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Well… The Ceiling is pretty high up… and aside from the single bench… there’s not much you could do.”

“That's a good point!” Heisuke says. “Plus you’d never be able to take the grate off, so its messed! She didn’t go through the vents! Case closed!”

“No…” Amai said. “That still doesn’t explain why her hats in there…”

“Maybe its a red herring?” Kujou theorized.

I thought about it for a moment. “Ok… What if... its connected to the Laundry Room?”

“Huh?” Otaka looked at me.

“Well…” I said. “Its always been pretty warm in there, hasn’t it?”

“Yeah…?” Kei was following me along.

“Well… The vents are connected, I say.” I said. “So all someone has to do is go in there, and open the vent up from the inside.”

“Hey hey!” Daishin called out. “That's pretty smart!”

“But how did Yukimura get up there in the first place?” asked Kei. “I don’t believe she can fly, after all.”  
  
“There would have had to have been some kind of rope, right?” Amai said. 

“Yeah!” I called out. “I think you’re onto something, Amai!”

“Really?” He said, questioningly.

“Well…” I said. “Do you remember the strange markings on Yukimura’s neck?”

“That's right…” Daishin said. “There were those upward markings, weren’t there?”

“Oh that could be anything!” Shouted Heisuke.

Amai sighed. “Dude literally shut the fuck up.”

“Ok ok…” I said, trying to get back on track. “So, I think I can see what this means.”

“You do?” Otaka asked. “What do you mean? Why would there be markings going up on her neck?”

“Well…” I said. “Lets say someone used a rope, right? If someone were to hook her neck and pull her up… I think the markings would match.”

“Yeah, it’d match up perfectly…” Amaterasu said. “So… that's what happened, right?”

“I guess…” Heisuke said. “It’d be a REAAALLLL shame if there was no rope though. Oh wait!”

“Right…” I said. “You’d need to use something as a rope to do that…”

“Is there anything there that could have been used?” Otaka asked. “I don’t remember seeing any rope…”

“They could have improvised.” Amai said. “Like with something else that's long.”

“Maybe they took some clothes from the clothing store?” Amaterasu said.

“Hold on… Yeah… I think that's on the right track!” I said. “If the person that wasn’t Heisuke was disguised… then… Maybe they twisted up the bird costume?”

“Oh yeah!” Kujou said. “That would explain the blood on the inside of the costume, right?”

“That doesn’t make any sense though…” Daishin said. “Why would it be there if she was simply choked?” Once again with that weird tone in his voice.

“What you you mean?” Kei said.

“He’s saying there ain’t no weapon!” Shouted Heisuke. “You see any dumbbell or plank with blood on it? You don’t!”

“Does there need to be a weapon?” I asked him.

“Huh? What does that mean?” He said.

“Well, picture it.” I said. “If She had been dragged through the vents, and came out of the ceiling, then the hit probably happened when she fell out, and her head hit the floor.”

“That would explain why that stain was there!” Called out Otaka, trialing my sentence.

“No…” Daishin said. “You’re logic is wrong Waruki.”

“What?” I looked to him.  
  
“That's not what caused that bloodstain.” He said, smiling. “Come on, you know, don’t you?” 

“Daishin…” Amaterasu said. “What are you... “

“...” I closed my eyes. “Your hand right…?” I said. “The wounds been having trouble healing… so if it reopened while trying to lift Yukimura…”

“Aha!” Daishin gave a light, and genuine smile before raising up his hand, a drip of blood slowly making its way down his hand from below his bandage. “That's exactly right, Waruki! You solved it!"

“...So you…” I took a step back.

“Yep…” Daishin’s grin dropped. “You were right before. It was me all along.”

“Hey, Wait!” Heisuke said, shouting. “Wh-What are you doing?!”

“I'm Admitting.” Daishin said. “I’ve lost.”

“Y-You can't!” Heisuke said.

“Hey…” Kei whispered to me. “Somethings… bothering me.”

“Huh?” The two of us were having a private conversation now.

“Daishin… he was one of Yukimura’s best friends…” she told me. “I can’t see why he would do something that cruel to her…”

“...You’re right…” I sat there and thought as Daishin and Heisuke started arguing in the background, with the others “Something’s not right…”

I returned back to my podium and began to think. “Hey!” I called out to Daishin.

“Huh?” He turned to me.

“Why did you kill her?” I said.

“What? Why?” He said. “Because…” His face darkened a little. “Because…”

I began to think. “Come to think of it… It’d be pretty hard to communicate this plan without Amaterasu noticing…”

“...” Daishin remained silent.

“What about that Whiteboard?”  Kei said. “Didn’t it have some writing on it?”

“Oh yeah!” I said. “It Totally did! It had… Zat… su on it… right?”

“Hrgh…” Heisuke looked at me, angrily. “Just, just ignore that for now! Its not important!”

“Oh isn’t it?” I asked. “I have a feeling that whiteboard is the key to why Daishin committed this crime…”

“You don’t know what you’re dealing with, Waruki…” he said. “Let a sleeping dog lie and forget it!”

“Zatsu… Zatsu... “ I tried to think, Something like that… I’d heard it before.. But from where…

“Zatsu can mean anything!” he said. “Its like, a filler word or something! I don’t know!”

I looked around the circle before my eyes landed on Kujou. Specifically, her notebook… wait! That's it!

“Kuroneko Zaibatsu.” I said, letting the words escape my lips in a soft manner. The room went silent. “There was a space between the Za and Tsu… so…”

“But… That's the Black Kat Conglomerate… right?” I could hear Amai say. “What does that have to do with anything.”

“The Kuroneko Zaibatsu…” Kujou was looking at her notes, her face darkened. “That's the Colloquialism that **members of the organization** use to refer to it.”

“H-Hey…” I could see the sweat forming on Heisuke’s brow. “Come on now…”

“Oh my god!” I shouted out. Everything was falling into place. “It makes sense! Your father’s “Business,” you trying to inherit it, the politics, Its not just a business! You’re the heir to an organized crime ring!”

“Rk!” Heisuke’s eyes widened. “...Y-Yeah…” He sighed.

“A Threat.” Daishin said. “...It was a Threat.”

“Uuuuggghhhh…” I could hear Heisuke die on the inside from beside me.

“Excuse me, Waruki?” I could hear Daishin talking. “Can we… end this?”

“You… want it to end?” I asked him.

“Yeah.” He smiled. “You… fully understand…”

“No no no!” Heisuke shouted. “Stop! Stop! You can’t!”

“Be quiet, Heisuke.” I said. “Don’t you see what you’ve done?!” I shouted at him.

“What I’ve done…” He bowed his head.

“I understand now. I understand everything, Heisuke.” I said. “This is over.”

 

_“Heres everything that happened in this case!”_

 

_The Incident started when the Culprit was put onto a team with two other people, Takai Amaterasu and Muto Heisuke, after the motive. During this time, the three of them stuck together, watching eachother, as we had all agreed to do. However, one Individual came up with a plan to commit a murder right under our noses. Muto Heisuke used a whiteboard he had stolen from Classroom A in order to communicate with the culprit away from the prying eyes of Amaterasu. Using this and the threats of his family, the “Kuroneko Zaibatsu,” he threatened the culprit into working together._

 

_Later, Heisuke disposed of this whiteboard by trying to put it back, without cleaning it off all the way, leaving the the phrase “Za...tsu” on it. During the day, they began their plan. In order to separate themselves from Amaterasu while we were on the 4th floor in the classroom, they faked a ruckus as one of them knocked Amaterasu out with a Book and wrote a “Twelve” in blood beside her. The two Immediately went to action with their plan._

 

_The Killer got into a Plague Doctors costume, a character making themselves known as “Twelfth Ender.” Me, Yukimura, and Otaka as well as the other group were on the floor at the same time. The killer came up from behind us and took Otaka by the handles of his wheelchair and ran off, while I was still dazed, while Yukimura hesitated. This Hesitation is what sealed her fate. Heisuke came up from behind her and apprehended her._

 

 _Heisuke dragged her to the sauna and threw her in, using a broom to block the door. In the sauna, Yukimura was trying to escape, but found her efforts to be fruitless. She felt the strength leaving her body, so in one last effort to save everyone, she wrote the “Suke” part of Heisuke name,_ _助_ _, in steam before passing unconscious._

 

_However, this was not to be where she died. The killer got up into the vents between the Sauna and Laundry Room, and curled the cloak of the Plague Doctor’s costume into a rope. Moving it around her neck and lifting her up and out of the Sauna, through the vents, and into the Laundry room, strangling her, and causing her hat to fall off into the vents!_

 

_This, the impact from the fall, was the true cause of death!! The killer unwrapped the cloak and put it and the mask on her, before writing “12” on the Laundry List. The killer escaped for a moment in order to not be caught by anyone over Yukimura’s body. However, after escaping into a not-so-empty classroom, another problem arose._

 

_The found the SHSL Ice cream man, Kichirou Amai, and had to act fast! Taking a clock, the killer struck Amai over the head, and wrote “12” nex to him. Now fully undressed, The culprit could quickly go and put the costume on Yukimura. However, the killer made one fatal mistake. The cut on their hand re-opened, and spilled blood on the inside of the costume!_

 

 _That is the truth behind this incident about a supposed seventeenth student!_ _It was none other than a masquerade by the Super High School Level Pole Vaulter, Muto Heisuke. It was a Setup. A setup to turn an innocent into a culprit._

 

 _Well, Did I get anything wrong,_ **_Super High School Level Cartographer, Hamadate Daishin?_ **

 

Daishin smiled. “You did it! You finally did it! I'm so glad!”

Heisuke sighed. “I guess its over, huh Daishin?”

Daishin didn’t even look at him. “Good Riddance.”

“What?” Otaka looked over at him. “What… whats going on?”

“I…” Daishin looked down. “Never really… wanted this.”

“Yeah no shit.” Amaterasu said. “Should we vote now?

“I'M GLAD YOU ASKED” The Overseer shouted. “Lets go! Please use the console in front of you to vote! 

I didn’t want to do it… but… Daishin seemed at peace with this outcome. He didn’t like it but he wasn’t scared. Just… sad. I pressed the button with a picture of his face.

“Lets see…” The Overseer looked over as the slots were brought down. And there he was. “You’re all absolutely correct!” He says. “The one that killed poor old Yuki Yukimura was none other than Hamadate Daishin himself! Give yourself a big hand folks!”

“Come on!” Daishin gave a smile. “You did it! You aren’t going to die!”

“Tsk.” Heisuke rolled his eyes. “At least i'm not gonna go either…"

“Oi.” Kei put a harsh hand on Heisuke. “You’ve got some explaining to do.”

“Huh?” Heisuke looked up.

“Yeah!” Amai called out. “Why did you do something like that, like, fuck!”

“Hmph…” Heisuke looked to the floor. “I wanted to leave.”

“You… wanted to leave?” Amaterasu asked him. “Why… Why didn’t you just kill someone yourself!? Why drag someone else into this!?”

“It was a Backup.” Heisuke flashed a devilish grin. It looked like he had remorse for what he had done, but was forcing himself not to break. “If you got it wrong, we’re gone. If you got it right, well, its not my head going on the chopping block.”

“That's…” Kujou pinched the bridge of her nose. “That's fucked up.”

“And looks like that's not happening now, Huh, Heisuke?” Daishin said, stepping past some others. “You lose.”

“You… I knew what you were doing from the second I saw you there..” He looked angry. “Nobody was supposed to find that whiteboard… but you found it. You could have just left it, you know.”

“Of course…” Daishin said. “I could have. I probably would have, but…” He looked down, his smile gone. “Then maybe, they wouldn’t realise all you had done to me.”

"Urk!” Heisuke groaned as Daishin slugged him in the stomach. Heisuke grabbed his gut and fell over in pain.

“Daishin!” Amaterasu and Kei held him back as Kujou shouted his name. “Stop!” 

“Yeah… Alright.” He let out a deep breath before relaxing.  
  
“Fucker…” Heisuke said, groaning in pain. “You never were like this before.” 

“...Maybe so.” He sighed. “You threatened me. You threatened my life. What was I supposed to do?”  
  
“H-Hold on!” I said. “You threatened his life?!”

“Its… Its over. I don’t want to talk about it.” Heisuke groaned.

“No no!” Daishin said. “Come on, Tell them all about how you told me to kill her. How you said that if I didn’t you would! How you would take me out with you and sell me to your FUN family!”

“...” Otaka looked away. “Horrible. You’re despicable.”

“Th-That's a lie!” Heisuke shouted.

“There’s no reason for us to believe you.” Amai said to Heisuke. “If that was a lie, why did he do it, Huh?”

“I…” Heisuke put his hands to his head. “Fuck! This place is fucking hell! Its Hell! Its Torture! Don’t you all want to leave too!?”

All of us remained silent as Heisuke stumbled to his feet. “I need to get out! I need to! I can’t stand it here! The same walls and the same food and the same people day after day after day! Its maddening!” Heisuke drag his hands down his face. “And you had to ruin it you prick! You fucking asshole!”

At once, Heisuke rushed towards Daishin, hands raised and balled into fists. Fast as a blur, Kei had struck him in the stomach once more, and he crumpled, only this time he didn’t get up.  
  
“Kei!!” I called out, running and wrapping my arms around her, pulling her back.

“Haha… oh man.” Daishin’s expression was wavering quick. “Uh, Thanks Homura. That could have been real bad. I mean, not that it matters…”

Amaterasu was poking at him on the ground. “Yeah… He’s knocked out.”

Daishin turned to the Overseer. “Hey hey! Are we done here?”

“Aw…” The Overseer looked rather dejected. “I mean, I suppose, and I was having so much fun watching you guys fight! You really want to get this over with, don’t you?”

“Yeah…” Daishin said. “I… Yeah. I'm ready to go.”

“Daishin…” Otaka wheeled over. “Its… not your fault... “

“Well…” He closed his eyes, turning from all of us. “It really is. I couldn’t stand for myself when I needed to the most… and I don’t know if that's something I’ll ever be able to forgive myself for.”

“Its not your fault…” Kujou said. “Its his! If anyone deserves to be punished, its him!” She said, pointing towards the crumpled form of Heisuke.

The Overseer began to speak, drowning out Kujou’s words. “Now then! I’ve prepared a very special punishment for our own SHSL Cartographer, Hamadate Daishin!”

“Well…” He smiled. “Looks like this is it, guys. I reckon my lucks all run out.”

“So lets give it everything we’ve got!”

“I hope… Yukimura… forgives me, wherever she is.”

“IIIIIIIITTTSSS PUNISHMENT TIME!”

 

 **HAMADATE DAISHIN HAS BEEN FOUND GUILTY!** ****  
**  
TIME FOR THE PUNISHMENT!**

 

 

_After everything had happened, The chain had clamped down around Daishin’s neck and violently tore him away from us, just like all the other culprits that had came before him. When the screen flickered to life, we could see him standing in the middle of a large, circular room. Surrounding him were arches and doorways. Passages leading far far farther than any of us could see from the angle of the camera. Daishin looked down. In his hands was an old, wrinkled, tattered, map._

 

**_THE LABYRINTH OF DAEDALUS: WILL HE BE STRUNG ALONG?_ **

 

_Looking down at the map, Daishin saw a map of may corridors and pathways, arranged in a circular pattern. He understood what he had to do. Try and escape with his life. With a start, he started heading down a corridor, tracing his route with his finger along the way. However, in a moment of carelessness, Daishin found himself walking head first into one of the large stone walls._

_He looked up. And then back down at the map. That wasn’t right, now was it? He looked down. There was supposed to be a clear path there… but in its place, he saw something truly abnormal. The ink of the mapp appeared to be… shifting. Bouncing, dancing around the pages as if it was performing the Waltz._

_He looked up to see a large piece of stone just narrowly miss his face. As the ink on the map danged and changed places, so did the large maze he found himself in. Walls changing and twisting before his very eyes. The Labyrinth had shifted, and so had his route._

_That was Daishin’s fate, to wander the halls and corridors, trying to find his way through, getting blocked off, and getting beaten up by the moving walls and passagess. However, throughout all of this, there was one other strange abnormality. It was mechanical, and sounded like a large crunching every couple of seconds._

_Eventually however, the source of the noise was made painfully clear to us when Daishin turned a corner haphazardly and came face to face with a giant beast. It felt almost… real. It had the head of a bull but the body of a man. Of course, every Labyrinth had to have its Minotaur._

 

_Daishin froze, trying to retrace his steps, but the wall that he had just passed through closed behind him, cornering him in place. The Minotaur looked at him with an eye of pure, unfiltered malice, and began to charge at him. Daishin tried to dodge, but, nothing could be done in his position._

_Straight through the star on his shirt, the Minotaur’s horns punctured him and gored him straight through his body, and out the other side. We could see Daishin cough up blood and try to scream, though no noise came out. After the Minotaur was finished, he pulled out of the Cartographer and began, once more, to wander aimlessly inside the Labyrinth, leaving Daishin to rot._

_Leaving Daishin to die._

 

None of us could say anything. There was nothing left for us to say. We had all done this same song and dance 3 times- now 4 times over. What could we have done? There was no way for us to reach him, our screams and cries couldn’t do any help either. It was a feeling of complete, overwhelming powerlessness.

Despite everything though, there was the small sliver in my hope that was glad. Not that Daishin had died, not that Yukimura had been murdered, but glad it was over.

“...can we leave?” Otaka asked, drearily.  
  
“Y-Yeah…” I said, walking over to him. “Lets-”

“No.” He said, still dreary but a little rougher. “No, Waruki… not… you… please…”

No… no no no… it was happening again, wasn’t it? “O-ok…” I said, as I backed off.

“...thanks…” I watched as Amai took the handles of his wheelchair from behind him and walked out of the Laboratory.

“Kimiko?” Kei looked over at me. “Do you want to go…?”

I thought about it for a second. This entire day had been so draining and exausting for me, I thought I’d pass out any second, but… “Uhm… s-sure… but… I need to do something first…”

“Hm?” She looked at me. I could see in her eyes that she was just as tired as I was, but nodded, accepting of me. “Just… come by my room when you’re ready… alright?”

“...Right…”

With that, sluggish, tired, and feeling like death itself, I left the laboratory.

I couldn’t tell when I fell asleep.

 

…

 

I hope its not too late.

It has to be now. Its now or never. Things are getting bad, really bad. I didn’t have much food left from my last restock run, and the last time I went out I was foolish enough to get caught. With only 7 people left… no. They aren’t going to stop it so easily this late in the game. Its never gotten to be this bad before but this… this is certainly new.

I cracked my neck as I looked at the bloodied writing on the wall. The one that sparked Heisuke’s plan. They were getting out of trial now, and most of them would be going to bed… except one. Her. I know her well enough. I guess you could say… her and I are one and the same? But that's not entirely true.

She is me, but i’m not her. I know she exists but… after everything that had happened to her, her memories being erased, her talent being completely wiped from her memory, she’s had it the worst out of everybody here, and yet she persists.

I do have to say that i'm proud of her.

I rubbed the Student ID Card in my hands, fingering over all of her statistics and vitals. It would certainly be a lot that we have to talk about. I had hoped that she’d be in sound mind when I did this, but it didn’t really work out. This would have to do, because if not now, I may never get the chance to do this.

I helped start this killing game, this horrible, despair-ridden killing game. A Folly that haunts my every dreams. But now, I Swore on my life, on the name of myself that I would bring it to and end once and for all.

 

Or my name wasn’t Kimiko Waruki.

 

 

 **[CHAPTER 4: DOUBLE OR NOTHING: END]  
**  
**[SURVIVING STUDENTS: 7]** ****  
**  
** **[ >CONTINUE?]**


	24. Chapter 5: Leave The World Blind (Daily Life Pt. 1)

I stepped out into the kitchen, I was hungry… so hungry. It was honestly unbearable at this point. The only meal I had had the last day was breakfast. With everything that had happened, I didn’t have the time to have a single bite to eat.   


...Just one. Just… just one thing… then I’ll go to bed. That's what I told myself, but the chair and table looked so inviting… Before I could parse what was happening, I felt the world spin around me, and a shoulder nudging me.

 

I got up but everything still felt spinning. Was I dreaming? I could feel the hand still nudging my shoulder. I got up, and could see the vision of… myself? I was older… and wearing the same Hope's Peak Academy uniform I could remember reading about weeks ago. So… I was dreaming? She was staring at me with a nice and warm smile. What was I supposed to do? What was I supposed to say?

“Wh-who… are you?” I managed to sputter out.

“Oh, me?” She said. “I'm you.”

So it was confirmed. I was definitely dreaming. I had heard that once you get the moment of lucidity, everything in your dream suddenly became clear, but I still couldn’t feel anything different. It all felt… surreal. The world was still fuzzy.

“You’re… me?” I asked.

“Not… quite.” She responded, chucking. “Just an old Test Subject giving her laments.”

 

I had been starting to think that maybe this dream was some kind of prophetic dream, like I was going to be getting a glimpse of the future. That or it was a part of myself giving me advice that I should be listening to. That certainly seemed like something that would happen at this rate. It wouldn’t be the weirdest after all.

“What… are you going to… tell me about my destiny or something?”

She shook her head. “Oh… Oh we have a lot to talk about, but not a lot of time to do it.” She stuck out her hand, beckoning me to take it. “Won’t you come with me?”

“O-of course!” I said, taking her- my- hand. She started walking with me.

“You’re not hurt, are you?” She asked me.

“...No…” I responded. “Just…”

“Just?” She raised an eyebrow.

“...I’ve been messing up… a lot lately.” I said. There was no harm talking to myself, right? “And I don’t know how to fix it.”

“Hmm…” She nods. “So I’ve heard... Well… actions speak louder than words, you know.”

“Huh?” I looked at her as we stopped in front of the elevator. “What… does that mean?”

“Its simple.” She said. “Instead of apologizing, just do better. They’ll see you’ve changed, and forgive you on their own.”

“But…” I felt myself gripping her hand tighter. “What if they don’t forgive me?”

“They might not. I can’t guarantee they will.” She said to me. “But that's not your decision, or your fault. You can’t be letting yourself get worked up over something like that, alright?”

“...I… I think I understand… its harder than it sounds though…” I nodded.

 

The both of us entered the Elevator. We waited as we both made it to the second floor.

“Why… are we here?” I asked.

“Its almost time, for you I mean.” She said. “I am in a great danger.”

“A Danger?” I said. “But… you’re not… real…”

“Mm…” She closed her eyes, ignoring my statement. “Have you… thought… about how you are going to escape?”

“Escape?” I asked. “Er… well… I can’t kill someone… I’d never kill someone...”

The girl gave a light chuckle at that. “That's… what they all say.” She sighed. We walked more, eventually stopping in front of the message painted in blood.

“What does this say?” She asked me.

“Uhm…” Was this a trick question? I looked up, but couldn’t read the words, due to my tiredness. However, I still remembered the message clearly. “I, Twelfth Ender, Rid Brotherliness.”

“No…” She shook her head. “That's… whats written, but its a puzzle.”

“A Puzzle?” I asked her.

“Do you know what an Anagram is, Waruki?”

“Eh, Of course… I…” I took a couple seconds. “You… rearrange the letters, right?”

“Yes.” She nodded. “And the solution is…?”

“Uhm…” It was very hard to try and figure out when I couldn’t see the words for myself. “I… I'm sorry… I don’t know…”

 

She sighed. “That's… alright. We’re almost out of time.”

“What…?” I asked. “What… does that mean?”

“I need to leave soon.” She said. “If… The Overseer saw me… it would be bad.”

“W-wait!” I said, under my tired groans. “What… am I supposed to do? How do I leave?”

“...You need to figure out the mastermind, Waruki.” She said. “But… I’ll always be with you.”

“Oh yeah…” I said. “...weird... dream and all…”

“...” She had no response to that. She simply palmed me a card. “Here. This will be the first step. Now…”

“Wh-what…?” I couldn’t read the words on the card. They were too blurry, but I could recognize what I thought was my face. “Who…”

 

“ **...Let The Worlds Fires End in Rebirth.** ”

“Huh?” I looked up at her. “What does that…?”

“I must leave now, I'm afraid. So this is Goodbye. Take care. You’re going to be Amazing.” She smiled at me, before giving me a large hug, and walking off.

“Wait…” I tried calling out to her, but she was already gone. I had no choice, but to return... maybe… I…

 

I woke up beside Kei. She was up, already dressed, sitting at my side on her bed. She had looked a lot more serious than usual, but still had that caring charm to her. “Kimiko… you’re awake…”

“Huh?” I asked. “Well… Yeah… what… happened?”

“You fell asleep in the halls.” She said. “I carried you back to my room. I Had to come looking for you."

“Ah…” I blushed. “Thanks.” Halls? So I fell asleep on the way to the kitchen. That's a little embarrassing but… I’m glad Kei found me before anyone else did.

“I have some… duties to attend to, you just go at your own pace, alright?” She said, a little stagnantly. What was going on? “I know you’ve been going through a lot, and I don’t want to stress you out.”

“Yeah…” I said. “Thanks…”

The two of us shared a kiss, and she walked out of the room. I tried moving but I felt… a weird poking in my pocket. “Huh?”

I reached into my pocket and pulled out a card. I recognized it, it was the card from my dream. If that was a dream… why… did I have it?

I looked it over more. It looked to be… A student I.D. Card from Hope's Peak Academy? And that was definitely my picture. The eyes, the length of hair… this was definitely… unequivocally, me.

I began to read the words on the card...

 

…

 

“Hey, it's a good opportunity you know”

“What?”

“They’re offering a full scholarship for you, and all you have to do is say yes”

“... a full scholarship? Like, Full?”

“Yes, they want you to come in and interview you, amongst other things, and if you pass you get a full scholarship.”

I looked down at the letter, the envelope stamped with the wax crest of the School. The memories were cut and faded from the excitement of the future, but I was holding a letter. It wasn’t an acceptance letter… but a proposition letter. Hope's Peak wanted to come in and interview me, they wanted to turn me into the **Super High School Level Test Subject**. They had plans to do testing for potential cloning technologies, as the letter read, and offered me a full scholarship if they could use my DNA as their guinea pig.

“But… You read this too right… that's… pretty heavy. I don't’ know why I would be the most qualified.”

“Oh calm down! It's not like they are going to stick you in a machine and drain your personality. I'm sure that it will take all of 5 seconds, and with those 5, you are gold.”

“That doesn’t make it any better!”

“It's a free scholarship, and you would be set for life! You could get a job anywhere if you graduate from here!”

“But why me? What makes me so special that they are asking me?”

“Because…” My mother went. “You’re 1 in a Million, Kimiko. You were the one chosen for this. They clearly had a reason. Don’t you think you should take it? Think of how proud Ryouhei would be of you!”

“I guess…” I said. “Yeah… I think I’ll do it. I'm… Yeah. Thanks, Mom. You’re the best.”

…

   

**CHAPTER 5: LEAVE THE WORLD BLIND: DAILY LIFE**

 


	25. Chapter 5: Leave The World Blind (Daily Life Pt. 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hogh! Wow! Its been a While! I Apologize Dearly. Life's gotten in the way, and it didn't really let up. That being said, I hope you like this chapter! I'll try to update more sooner now that my life's getting a bit more stable. 
> 
> Hope you Enjoy!

I stared down at the card in my hand for a few moments. I could read the words and decipher the picture of myself perfectly but the true meaning behind it couldn’t click in my head. Super High School Level Clone.

Was that… who I was? A clone? I didn’t want to believe it. Who was I?

That person… that myself I met… that… wasn’t a dream, was it?

Kei had already left the room by this point. I scratched my head as I propped myself up on the bed. I was still quite tired from my “night out” last night, but…

...I still haven’t gotten anything to eat. I should prooobbbabbbllyyyy do that.

 

I got up off my seat and went and washed myself, still thinking about the events that happened last night. Not just about the visit from the strange… myself, but, the trial too.

Hamadate Daishin, The SHSL Cartographer, Died. In the end, his own unwillingness to stand up for himself ended up being his downfall, when Heisuke threatened him into being an accomplice. Now he’s dead.

The last I saw Heisuke was being Unconscious on the ground of the trial room. Should… I go check? Yeah… That's a good idea.

I left down the hall and quickly peered into the Laboratory. Our trial grounds. There was nobody there though. It made sense, when I thought more about it. Nobody would have left Heisuke there. Someone had to have brought him back to his room. It was that or he slept there all night, and got up before I did. That couldn’t have been comfortable.

Leaving the Laboratory, I went to the Cafeteria to get some Food. Maybe Heisuke would be there? Even if he was, what would I do? I doubt he’d be interested in talking about what happened yesterday…

 

I stepped into the Cafeteria. There were 2 other people there. Kujou, and Otaka. Kujou was sitting at the table, and Otaka was just coming out of the Kitchen. I had to walk past him in order to get my own food.  
  
“Hey there Otaka” I said, softly but with a smile. I didn’t want to push too much after a trial… tensions and nerves were sure to still be at an all time high.

“...” He didn’t meet my eyes, just pausing for a couple seconds, before a simple “Hey.” and wheeling himself right past me.

“..Huh?” I looked back at him, a little shocked by his ignoring of me, but, didn’t pay much mind to it. It was after the trial.

I had gotten my food and gone to sit down. Kujou had beckoned me over, and asked for me to sit down next to her.

“Hey…” She said. “How uh, How are you holding up?”

“Oh…” I had remembered my… Dream? I wasn’t sure what to call it, what happened to me last night. “I'm uh… fine… well, about as fine as you can be in this situation, I suppose.”

“That's good to hear.” She said, sipping some tea. “I… Its been a pretty rough night for me too, lets… just leave it at that.”

“Are you sure?” I asked. “If you wanna talk about it…”

“Just, nerves is all.” She said, trying to force a smile. “I’ve gotten used to it by now”

“I mean… I guess… This isn’t really something you should get used to…”

“Is it?” Kujou asked. “I… I don’t know, I kind of want to.”

“You want to?” I asked, a little bit weirded out by the sentiment.

“I mean…” Kujou took another drink. “That's just… how I see it. If I get used to it, it’ll stop stinging less. It’ll stop hurting, every trial, every time I have to see someone die, with no way to stop it.”

“But you can stop it!” I said. “We can! I know we can!”

“...” Kujou stared at her tea. “...I’ve been trying, I really have. I just… don’t know what else to do, but give in and try to numb it, you know? I'm up against something much, much larger than me.”

“...Kujou.” I sighed. “I’ll get you out of here, I promise.”

“Will you?” She asks. “When it comes time to it, will you really?”

“I…” I clenched my fists a little. “Do you not believe me?”

“No, I do. Or at least.. I want to.” She takes another, sorrowful drink. “I'm just… used to people abandoning me.”

“Oh… Kujou…” I put a caring hand on her shoulder. “That's terrible, i'm… sorry. But tell you what. No matter what, even if this building crumbles to dust, you and I are gonna get out together, alright?”

“...its alright.” She replies. “I… appreciate the gesture though.”

“I'm serious!” I said. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

Kujou finished her drink. I’ll talk to you later about it, for now, we should uh, go see that new area, right?”

“Oh, that’s right!” I said. I turned to Otaka. “Hey, You should come along too.”

“...” He didn’t even bother looking at me. “...Ill pass.” He said.

I looked a little down. Was he still mad at me? No matter, I had Kujou, who had managed to return her cup safely to the kitchen and was standing by my side. “We should uh, we should go now, right?”

“Alright.” I said with a nod.

 

The two of us made our way to the elevator. I looked to the buttons that made up the panel. Usually there would be another, but, I noticed that this had been the final button. As if there was no other place for another button to go.

“Hm…” I said. “You know… I just had a thought, Kujou.”

“Whats that?” She asked me.

“Whatever happened to Heisuke?” I asked. “I don’t remember seeing him leave.”

“I'm not sure.” She said. “I left before he did too.”

I thought back to him, and his actions during the last trial. Muto Heisuke… one could argue that he was the true killer of that case, threatening Daishin into murdering Yukimura, and exploiting his inability to stand up for himself.

“I Wonder if he’s exploring too.” I pondered.

“Or he’s staying in his room.” Kujou replied. “He’s sort of become Public Enemy #1.”

I couldn’t help but feel a little relieved, considering that I had made a very big mess of myself lately. Still, I couldn’t help but worry about Heisuke.

 

When the Elevator stopped, we were all fairly… off put by the sight before us. The floors before us were rather plain, yet at least had an air of cleanliness and slight professionalism to them. This however… I could tell something was off. It was darkened. It was dingy. It was…

“This… is the end.” Kujou said. “Look over there.”

Kujou pointed over to the end of the hall. There was a large door at the end of the hall, with what looked like a picture of a phoenix drawn on both sides. In front of the door was Amai, hunched over a keyboard.

“Amai?” She asked. “What are you doing?”

“Oh… Hey guys.” He said. “I found the exit!”

“Are you sure its the exit?” I asked.

“Well of course.” he said, a little annoyed. “There’s a password needed and everything.”

“A Password?” I asked.

“Yes, that's what I said.” He said. “I tried a bunch of things already, like… Phoenix, or Overseer, but it doesn’t seem to be working.”

“Can I try?” I asked.

He rolled his eyes. God, this is getting old. “Go right ahead, I guess!”

I stepped up to the panel. I had thought. Maybe…

[LET THE WORLDS FIRES END IN REBIRTH]  
  
...Nothing.

“Hey- Whats that supposed to mean?” He asked me. If what I saw… if that was real, I probably shouldn’t be talking about it to everyone. If… she… myself? Is real… this could be our chance to escape.

“Just a guess.” I shrugged. “I wonder if this is really the exit though…”

“Of course it is.” He said. “Didn’t expect anything more out of you.”

“Be nice!” Kujou quipped.

“Meh.” Amai started off. “You should look at this, though.” He said, pointing to another room.

 

The two of us entered the room, it appeared to be some sort of computer room, with a large monitor and seat, with some fans. As well as Amai, Amaterasu was there too, flicking through some of the different screens.

“Welcome.” She said, still looking at the screen.

“Hold on.” Kujou stepped forward. “There’s not much of a door, how did you know we came in here?”

“Look.” She said, pointing to the screen. “This is a Security Room, So this logs every time someone Enters, and leaves a room, automatically.”

I looked on the screen, and saw the following:

4:14:15: Control Room Entered  
8:00:10: Meltdown Room Entered  
8:00:12: Meltdown Room Entered  
8:05:34: Meltdown Room Exited  
8:17:56: Security Room Entered  
8:18:02: Reactor Room Entered  
8:18:17: Reactor Room Exited  
8:18:17: Meltdown Room Entered  
8:18:17: Meltdown Room Exited  
8:18:17: Reactor Room Entered  
8:23:53: Meltdown Room Entered  
8:23:53: Reactor Room Entered  
8:23:53: Reactor Room Exited  
8:23:53: Meltdown Room Exited  
8:42:02: Security Room Entered  
8:42:04: Security Room Entered  
8:42:09: Security Room Entered

Reactor Room? Meltdown Room? Control Room? I definitely had to check these out. I looked over to the console.

“Do these only show the rooms from this floor?” I asked.

“Looks like it.” She said. “These do seem to be… important.”

“Aaaagghhh…” Amai put his hands to his face. “This is all too much.”

“Oh yeah…” She said, before touching a button. “You can view the logs for the rooms seperately, or all together.”

“That's nice.” Kujou said. “Is there anything else that this room can do?”

“Donno.” Amaterasu said. “I haven’t really gotten that far…”

“I don’t suppose you could open that big door, huh?” Amai asks.

“No.” She said. “But… there is info on like… Electics.”

“Electrics?” Kujou asked.

I looked at the screen. “Looks like just a hunch of numbers to me.”

“It probably is informative to whoever this is meant for.” Amaterasu said, a little sharply. “You can also turn it off. Same goes for the water too, turns out.”

“Huh.” I looked. “So I’d imagine the Electrics controls things like the Lights and Electronics for the entire facility?”

“That's what electrics _means_ , Waruki!” She said, turning to me.

“Hey!” Kujou said. “I said no fighting!”

“Meh.” Amaterasu once again, stewing into herself.

“Control Room…” Kujou pondered. “Do you think that to be the large door?”  
  
“That’d make sense.” Amai said. “But that would mean…”

“That's right!” I completed his sentence. “That’d mean that someone actually went in there this morning…”

“Well, I'm fairly certain I saw everyone.” Amaterasu said. “If i'm right, Homura should still be in the Reactor Room, and Heisuke’s still in the Meltdown Room…”

“The Meltdown room?” I asked.

“What? You Planning on Breaking him out?” She asks. “Seems like something you’d do.”

“I SAID ENOUGH!” Kujou shouted, very seriously. She was quite stressed I could tell. “I don't care, we’re not doing this! Not today! Lets go!”

I could feel the collar of my shirt getting tugged by Kujou as we made our way out of the Control room before another fight broke out.

 

“You didn’t have to break us up you know.” I said.

“Eh.” She shrugs. “I… I’ve seen you do this before.”

“...Me?” I was honestly shocked. ‘What, what do you mean by me?”

“No- not you.” She said, closing her head and shaking it. “I mean, You as in another person, say you fight, and you break things off even though you need to work together, and things break off, and it doesn’t go as planned.”

I stopped. “Yeah, I think I get it.” I said. “We still have to escape in the end, right?”

“Yeah.” She nodded. “Its just, you- haven’t really been getting along with everyone lately.

“Hey!” I said, a little louder than I meant to. “That's not really- that's not my fault, its them that have to forgive me, right?”

Kujou just shook her head. “Its not that simple. You still did bad things, and they might not forgive you. It was the same with Akamaru, after all.”

I looked to her. “Akamaru?”

“Just a friend of mine.” She says. “Or, used to be at least. We couldn’t get past some of our… disagreements, and we broke things off.”

This conversation was honestly getting really depressing for the both of us, but still, I haven’t gotten the answer to the one thing that's been on my mind.

“Hey, Kujou?”

“Yes, Waruki?”

“You don’t hate me too, right?”

‘...” Kujou stopped for a moment, I must have caught her off guard with the question. “...no. Not you. You’re still good at heart. You’re still my friend…” She smiled weakly. “I just… hope that you’ll be able to keep your promise, when it really comes down to it.”

“Huh?” I looked to her. “Why… what makes you say that.”

She looked down, a bit more sourly. “I… need to go rest. I have a headache. I can come see later, the other rooms. You’ll be fine by yourself, right Waruki?”

“I- I guess?” Well this was certainly sudden. I didn’t strike a nerve or anything, did I? “I guess… I’ll see you later then.”

Kujou walked off in the direction of the Elevators, while I turned around to look at the other rooms on this floor.

 

I looked into the next door, it was a little reinforced, as were a lot of the doors on this floor. I could see the beige glow of a Stetson from the crack of the door, which led me to conclude that Kei was in here.

“Kei?” I called out to her.

“Ah, I’ve been waiting for you.” Kei replied. “I hope you’re doing alright? You’re not too disoriented, are you?”

“No…” I shook my head. “No, I’m pretty sure I’m fine.”

“That’s good to hear.” She said. “Do you know what this room is?”

I didn’t, in fact, know what this room was. However, I had found a way to save face and deflect. “...do you?” I asked.

“Well I do now.” She said. “I was just wondering if you had figured it out.”

I looked around the room. There were a lot of Pipes and Wires, all connected to this large boiler looking container. There were lots of mechanics and there was even a screen, a lot more than a regular boiler.

“This must be… the reactor room, right? And that’s the Reactor.”

“It would look like it.” She said. “If I had to wager, this reactor powers the entire bunker.”

“Is it like, a nuclear reactor?” I asked.

“I don’t know.” She replied. “All I know is that it’s some sort of Reactor. I would guess Nuclear, But a Reactor this small?”

“If it’s only to power the Bunker…” I said. “But I’m kind of nervous it’ll like, blow up. Don’t reactors like-“

“Meltdown?” Kei finished my sentence before I got the chance to.

“Yeah.” I said. “It does kind of worry me.”

“You know, nuclear energy is one of the cleanest and safest forms of energy on the planet.”

“...I guess.” I shrugged. “Still, are there no safety features?”

“There is the emergency button.” She says, pointing to a red button on the terminal. “If you believe that there is a chance this will… explode, then you press this button.”

“What does the button do exactly?” I asked once more.

“Press it and find out.” She said.

 

At her invitation, I pressed the red button and suddenly, the room started to spin. Not that I was getting dizzy, it was literally spinning.

“Whoa!” I called out, as Kei grabbed on to me to keep my balance. When it was all said and done, we seemed to be in a much more enforced room. “What… where are we?”

Kei let go of me. “They call this the Meltdown room, I suppose.” She says. “If it does blow, these should prevent damage to the rest of the bunker.”

“Alright…” I looked around. It was a relatively empty room, save some very insulated and reinforced walls. “So… this’ll protect us.”

“That's right.” Kei said. “In case of an emergency. There’s even a door here, for you to run out of. In the event of catastrophe.”

“Ahah…” I scratched the back of my neck. “That's true, I suppose I wouldn’t want to be caught in the blast…”

I opened the door, and just as Kei said, this led back out to the hall. It was a pretty weighty door too. Homura put a hand on my Shoulder. “But, wwe should probably put the Reactor back where it belongs. It’ll go back in a couple moments.”

True to what Kei had said, the room came back once again. “Ah!” I said. “That's… Handy I suppose?”

“Sure.” She said. “But I’d hope we never have to use it.”

“Of course, of course” I said, before switching to a new line of questioning. “Hey, Do you know where Heisuke went to?”

Kei’s expression hardened, and she took a couple seconds to answer me. “I'm not sure.” She said.

“...You aren’t lying to me, are you?” I asked.

“What reason would I have to lie to you?” She said, a little stiffly. “I'm not sure why you’re concerned about that guy anyways, Its obvious he’s the Mastermind.”

“Wait- Mastermind?” I asked.

“Come on, this is clearly the work of that organization he’s a Subordinate of. He’s the heir! He’s ready to take the throne!” Kei was getting very defensive of this theory of hers.

“No… No that can’t be right.” I said. “He said he ran away, He just did that to scare! He was scared!”

“Enough, Kimiko! That guys bad news! I want you to stay away from him!”

“You’re hiding something from me, aren’t you?!” I asked.

“What could I possible be hiding?” She asked, scoffing.

I paused for a moment. “On the security, 2 people entered and exited a room at the same time. That's probably the room spinning. But that would mean…”

I broke off from Kei and threw open the door to the Meltdown room, and my suspicions were confirmed. Sitting there, tied to a chair, placed on the back of the room, Muto Heisuke sat.

 

“Heyyyyyy!” Heisuke called out to me. “Well if it isn’t my friend Kimiko Waruki! How the hell have you been keeping then?”

“What... “ I stared, Dumbfounded, as Kei came up behind me.

“I didn’t wan’t you to see this.” She said, a little dissapointed.

“Awwwwwwww, come on, Kei!” He said. “What, i'm not allowed to talk to my friends?”

“Don’t call me that!” She snapped, stepping forward. “We know you’re the mastermind, you’re caught! So why don’t you just give up already!?”

“Huh?” He blinks. “You’re still on that? How are you so sure i'm the mastermind? Besides, the mastermind could always be dead. The Overseer does run off an AI you know.”

“He… does have a point, Kei.” I said.

“No, No don’t listen to him, Kimiko.” She said. “He’s just trying to confuse you, give you doubt, its obvious!”

Kei walked up to him and started to shake him. “Come on! Don’t you feel bad for Yukimura? For Daishin? Call it off!”

He simply scoffed. “I'm not gonna talk to you if you keep treating me that way.”

“Why you little!-” Kei gave him a rough shove. “You don’t give a single shit, do you!?!”

“Hey!” I ran up to Kei. “Come on, Knock it off!”

“No, Kimiko!” She said. “We need to stop this game! Stop people from dying! Something has to give! I don’t- I don’t want to lose you!”

“Really?” Heisuke taunted. “You and Waruki are really a thing? I thought that was a dumb rumor. How do you know that isn’t just your hormones talking? Nothing like a deadly situation to make your ov-”

“SHUT UP!” Kei blew her lid, finally, and lunged at Heisuke.

“No!” I called out, jumping between them. I’m not sure why I did, but I knew I was too weak to hold Kei back. Of course, that meant that I was the one that get the brunt of Kei’s smack.

“Ghah!” It hurt. I was glad that Kei was strong, but, I could see immediately after the fear and regret on her face. It had been the most scared I had ever seen her. Usually she’s good at putting on a brave face  but… she looked genuinely upset.

“O-Oh my god, Kimiko! I'm-” Kei stepped back, hands over her mouth. “Wh-What? Im - Why did you?”

This was it. As I stood there and listened, my cheek stinging, Heisuke laughed. “Ahah! Oh man, looks like you really fucked up now!”

“No- I” Kei didn’t have a chance to finish before I bolted out of the room, tears flowing down my face. I had done it again. I had ruined it again, and against someone I cared about. I made her upset.

I could hear her calling my name, but I couldn’t bear to get my body to stop running, no matter how much I wanted to try and stop.

 

Kujou was sitting downstairs, once again in the Library. She must have heard my crying, as she caught up to me before I could get to my room. “Waruki? Whats… wrong?”

I sniffled. “I couldn’t do it, Kujou.” I sputtered. “I… I ruined it again. I couldn’t- I made it worse… I made it bad.”

Kujou looked genuinely upset to see me like this, she had a remorseful look in her eyes. “Sh… come here… look, uh… its… its gonna be alright, ok?” She pulled me in, though,

I could tell she wasn’t a hugger by any stretch of the imagination.

“I'm sorry…” I shook my head. “I… I don’t know what to do.”

She sighed. I saw her scrunch her eyes, before breaking off from our rather awkward embrace. “Just… just take a deep breath, alright?”

I did as she said and took a deep breath. “Thank you… Kujou.”

“Now… She looked to her room. “I… I know i'm not, good, at this kind of stuff. I don’t want to leave you alone though. Do you want to talk about it?”

“No…” I shook my head. “Not… not yet.”

“I understand.” She said. “Is there anything you’d like me to do, in that case?”

I looked to her room. “You probably have lots of books in your room, right?”

“Yeah…” She looked at me strangely.

“Do you think… I could come over?” I asked. “Maybe you could read me a story?”

“Sure.” Kujou nodded. “I… Yeah. I can do that, uhm, if you think it’d help…”

 

The two of us spent the rest of the afternoon reading. It was just a distraction from the real problems, but it felt nice. I really did feel closer to Kujou afterwords.

Maybe… that's why this all happened. Maybe that's why this all blew up. Maybe if I hadn’t gotten closer to her… some of this tragedy could have been prevented.


End file.
